


stumble and fall (stage left)

by pocketpastel



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Theatre, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, hip hop team are skaters, implied napink, kind of enemies to friends to lovers, mentions of other Idols, rocketline friendship, some f/f ships appear later, the play is romeo and juliet, units are friend groups, v8 friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27654830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketpastel/pseuds/pocketpastel
Summary: Seungkwan's world is turned upside down when he lands an unexpected role in the university play and his so-called worst nemesis joins the backstage crew.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 74
Kudos: 102





	1. i

**Author's Note:**

> the way i'm starting another wip now
> 
> my theatre knowledge is limited to past experiences in tech crew

Maybe it was time Seungkwan got glasses.

The flimsy sheet of paper taunts him. Evident creases line the corners from previous grabby fingers and a coffee stain marks up the entirety of the left side. But all Seungkwan can stare at are those three horrific little words. 

It couldn’t be.

“Hey, dude-” A bored voice interrupts the static noise buzzing in his head and Seungkwan barely registers Xu Minghao’s impatient presence from behind him. It takes a moment for him to snap out of his reverie- _no_ , his _nightmare_ \- and Seungkwan blinks, slowly turning around to face Minghao, who raises an eyebrow at him.

“Can I help you?” Seungkwan snaps. He can’t help it- how _dare_ Minghao, a guy he barely knows as one of Chan’s weird older friends, interrupt his moment of passionate anger and disbelief?

Minghao rolls his eyes and blows a bright pink bubble in his face. Seungkwan thinks he doesn’t look as intimidating as he’s clearly trying to be.

“Seungkwan, right?”

At least Minghao has the rational sense to remember his name.

“Yes?” He thinks about it and of course Minghao remembers his name! Everyone around here knows who Seungkwan is and that’s the way he-

“Can you move out of the way please? I’m trying to see the list.”

Seungkwan scoffs. Looks like Minghao is not worthy after all.

“You-” he starts, swiping the paper off of the auditorium door, “-Had all day to look at the list. Listen-” Seungkwan pretends to be deep in thought. “Minghao, is it?”

Minghao nods, brows still furrowed. And there he goes, proving that Seungkwan _is_ a good actor- the best at their school, really- and that there’s no way Seungkwan actually got the role of- 

“Ah yes, _Minghao_ ,” Seungkwan shakes his head at the ground sadly. “You see, I’m having a bit of a crisis at the moment. Would you be so kind as to help me out, _Minghao_?”

“Uh, I’m kind of in a hurry actually-”

“Oh, it’ll just take a second!” Seungkwan chuckles. He shoves the list right under Minghao’s nose. “I just need you to read me the words on the seventh line, please. Just to make sure I’m not completely losing it, you know?”

“Um, okay,” Minghao wrinkles his nose at him but plucks the sheet of paper out of his hands nonetheless. “It looks like it says- _Boo Seungkwan-”_

  
  
  
  


_“-Tybalt?”_ Seungkwan bursts through the door, seething as he marches up to Nayoung. The director sits calmly behind her desk, tapping away on her laptop. Seungkwan barely takes notice of Jeonghan snoring away on the couch beside her, too ready to erupt in anger over the fact that he was cast as fucking Tybalt in their university’s (second) production of _Romeo and Juliet_ . Tybalt! How could anyone look at Seungkwan and think that he was the perfect choice to play a _side character?_

“Hello, Seungkwan,” Nayoung doesn’t look up from her work. “Yes, you’re playing Tybalt. And no, I’m not changing the cast around. It’s been finalized since last night.”

“But- but how can you give me the role of Tybalt?” Seungkwan gapes at her in incredulity. “I didn’t even audition for Tybalt. I auditioned for Juliet, or whoever we’re calling the role now that it’s being played by a guy,” Seungkwan pauses to take a breath. “I would have taken Romeo too, just- just not _Tybalt!_ ”

The clicking of Nayoung’s nails finally stops and she shuts her laptop closed. “Sorry, Boo- I’m not in charge of these things.”

“You’re the director!”

“Oh, yeah,” Nayoung laughs quietly to herself as Seungkwan continues to fume. “But honestly, though. I think you’ll do great as Tybalt, Boo. It’s a fun part.”

She reopens her laptop and Seungkwan can’t believe his ears. First he was going blind from reading the words _Boo Seungkwan: Tybalt_ and now he was probably going deaf because there was no way Nayoung just told him it was going to be _fun_ playing a side character.

Nayoung sighs, taking notice of Seungkwan’s prevailing dejection and shuts her computer once more. “I’m serious, Seungkwan. You’ll do a good job, trust me.”

“Hey, what if we just change the play altogether?”

_“Seungkwan.”_

“No, really! Why are we doing _Romeo and Juliet_ for the second time in three semesters?”

From the couch, Jeonghan yawns as he sits up properly, threading his fingers through his hair. “We’ve explained it so many times, Boo.”

“Yadda yadda popular demand, I know.” Seungkwan waves a hand at him, not caring that he was being dismissive to a hyung he usually respected. Their university had multiple theatre troupes, the biggest one being the one he had joined on the first day of his first year. Which happened to be last semester, when the troupe had put on a production of _Frankenstein_ and Seungkwan had unsurprisingly snagged the leading role of Frankenstein’s Monster despite being a freshman. He sighs overdramatically at the memory, at a simpler time when everyone watching in the audience could immediately tell that Seungkwan was a star. 

Now it seemed like he was destined to a life of only playing characters who died halfway through the play. “You- you can’t do this!” he tries to protest one more time but Nayoung shakes her head.

“If you don’t want to be in the play, we can find someone else. I’m sure Jaehyun- you know, the dude who _actually_ auditioned for Tybalt- could play the part.”

Jeonghan lets out a loud cackle at Seungkwan’s expense and Seungkwan glares at him. For some reason, the only thing worse than having a role he wanted swiped away from under his nose is having a role he didn’t even want swiped away anyway. It looks like he doesn’t have any choice but to resign to his new life. 

“Fine, I’ll do it,” he grumbles and Nayoung finally smiles at him.

“Good. I’ll be sending out the rehearsal schedules by the end of the day, so keep an eye on your email. Now leave me alone, I’ve got work to do.”

She opens her laptop once again and Seungkwan slumps sadly over to the couch, letting his body go limp against Jeonghan’s. His older friend just continues to sneer in his face and swings an arm around Seungkwan’s shoulders.

“Look at it this way, Boo- you won’t have to do as much work.”

“But it’s work that I actually like doing,” Seungkwan whines. He knew that Jeonghan, despite his usual enjoyment of the spotlight, purposely auditioned for a smaller role _(that he already fucking played before)_ so he could sleep through rehearsal and still earn another semester’s worth of credits for graduation. Seungkwan wonders how much of Jeonghan’s friendship with Nayoung played a role in ensuring that he would get the role of the Nurse again. Both seniors had been involved in last year’s production of _Romeo and Juliet,_ the one that Seungkwan heard legends about. That play had gained an immense amount of popularity in part due to the behind-the-scenes love story between the two girls playing Romeo and Juliet.

“Everyone loved their whole friends-to-lovers thing they had going on off-stage,” Jeonghan had explained to him during auditions two weeks ago. “So everyone asked us to put on another R and J, but we decided to make them both boys this time.”

Jihoon, their friend and the stage manager, had grunted in agreement. “Nayoung also changed their ages to be the same, like she did last year. You know, ‘cause Juliet was like fourteen to Romeo’s eighteen in the original play. But we’re keeping in all the fights and that’s what I’m really excited to write the blocking for.”

And Seungkwan had nodded with them both, excited for what was to come. How naive had he been, to believe that it would be that easy! He shakes Jeonghan by his shoulders.

“What if we switched parts? You’ll get to have a fake sword fight! And I won’t have to die in the play.”

“No!” Jeonghan shoves him back. “I already memorized my lines. Boo, just suck it up. Nayoung saved you from having to kiss Seokmin on stage in front of a huge crowd.”

“Oh man, you’re right!” Finally, a silver lining in the dark cloud that was this whole Tybalt situation. Seungkwan’s eyes light up. “And I can hit Seokmin with a fake sword!”

“You can hit Seokmin with a fake sword!” Jeonghan exclaims, matching his enthusiasm. As if on cue, the door swings open and Seokmin runs into the office.

“Hi Nayoung!” he greets the director, whose eyes are still glued to the screen. “And you two!” Seokmin practically jumps onto the couch and it threatens to slide and ram through the wall. “Guys, I’m so nervous! The cast list is gonna get posted any minute now-”

“The list is out,” Seungkwan tells him. Was he the only one who had ran directly to the auditorium doors after his lectures and frantically looked for his name? Maybe Seungkwan should just play every single part in the play since no one else seemed to care enough!

He huffs to himself as Seokmin’s eyes widen and his friend hops off the couch, ready to run out the door. “What? Where is it? I need-”

“You’re Romeo.” Jeonghan pats him on the back and Seokmin lets out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Was Seungkwan the only one out of his friends who hadn’t gotten the part they auditioned for? Seungkwan falls back into his slump. He doesn’t even know who ended up getting the part he wanted, having only searched for his own name earlier. He could do nothing but stare in horror at his role for the next five minutes until Minghao came up behind him.

“Wait, so that means-” Seokmin throws his arms around Seungkwan and hugs him tightly. “Boo, we did it!”

“No, no we didn’t,” Seungkwan pushes him off quietly. And it hit him, the way everyone had the same expectations for him as he had for himself. Everyone thought he was deserving of a starring role and yet here they were. “Seok, I’m playing... _Tybalt_.” He shudders at his mere mention of the name.

“Really?” Seokmin gasps. “Congrats, dude!”

He never did know tact well. “Seungkwan doesn’t want the part,” Jeonghan tells him. “It’s a very rough time for him right now.”

“Don’t make fun of me,” Seungkwan mutters weakly at the same time Seokmin goes, “Ohh. Sorry, Boo. But hey, at least we’ll get to have a fight scene together.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.”

“So, uh,” Seokmin scratches the back of his neck. “If Boo’s not Juliet, then who-”

“Ugh, just go check the list!” Jeonghan groans but Seungkwan doesn’t miss the odd hint of a smile peeking from the corner of his mouth. “I’m going home. I have lines to memorize anyway.”

“No, you don’t-” Seungkwan starts but Jeonghan picks up his backpack and strolls out of the room with a half-hearted wave. Nayoung returns the gesture before she flips her screen to their direction.

“Here, I’ve got a copy of the list right here.”

“No thanks,” Seungkwan kicks an imaginary pebble on the ground. He stands up too, not ready to hear who had stolen- yes, _stolen-_ the part that should have rightfully been his. “I’m heading out too.”

So he does, slamming Nayoung’s office door behind him just loudly enough to make a point but not so angrily that he’ll get yelled at in the next two seconds. The last thing he hears from the office is an unintelligible shriek and he decides against opening the door again. 

Seungkwan tramples away in the direction opposite to the auditorium, wanting to avoid everything associated with the play. He catches himself sniffling a bit as he walks back to his dorm, and he wants to slap himself for being so pathetic. Maybe his friends were right. It was just one play, the second out of many in his university career. But he’d always claimed a starring role in every theatre production he had been involved in, from huffing and puffing as the wolf in his kindergarten’s rendition of _The Three Little Pigs_ to belting out as Elphaba in his high school’s remake of _Wicked_. He knew he could be a bit of a diva sometimes but wasn’t that just how all the biggest stars acted? Seungkwan just liked winning and the more he won, the better. 

Maybe- maybe he just had to put on such a good performance as Tybalt that Nayoung would reconsider his role! No, that wouldn’t do. She would only want Seungkwan for the role even more. What if he did a terrible job on purpose and then- no, then he’d just get kicked out of the play. Maybe Seungkwan should find a way to intimidate whoever was playing Juliet into giving up the part. 

Or perhaps that was too mean. Darkness falls in the sky around him and before he knows it, Seungkwan is reaching for his student card to sign into his residence. Soon he’ll be in bed, surrounded by the homework he’s ignoring and hopefully he’ll wake up from this nightmare in the morning.

A drawn-out _skrrrt_ echoes from nearby, distracting him. Wheels scrape against concrete and a _thud_ , followed by a metallic rattling sound, resonates in the cool winter air. Seungkwan peers from behind the post to his side, catching a glimpse of four figures hanging out in the skatepark adjacent to his building. The smallest one takes off his helmet, shaking his hair out and Seungkwan stares. 

_Ugh, right._ His breath catches in his throat and he narrows his eyes. Chwe Hansol was the strangest manifestation of a skater boy, as well as Seungkwan’s worst nightmare. Everyone always told him he was being silly but Seungkwan couldn’t think of anything worse than someone having _zero_ idea who he was. Hansol had sat two seats away from him in his philosophy elective last semester and while all the other guys in their row had laughed at Seungkwan’s jokes and approached him with earnest smiles outside of class, Hansol did _not_ and that made Seungkwan irrationally annoyed. Hansol had spoken a total of around five words to him all semester and that was only to ask to borrow an eraser on the day that Joshua, who usually sat between them, was sick. 

It was almost as if Hansol had something against him, but that seemed impossible because who wouldn’t want to be Seungkwan’s friend? He couldn’t imagine anything worse than having so many chances to get closer to Boo Seungkwan and not taking any of them. Well, until now, anyway. Now Seungkwan had the play to deal with but he still had to come home every night and go through the unfortunate experience of hearing stupid Hansol play around on his stupid skateboard with his stupid friends.

Suddenly, Hansol turns his head and appears to spot him. Seungkwan glares at him, hoping he can see it from on the ramp where he’s standing. Hansol quickly adverts his gaze and Seungkwan sticks his nose in the air with satisfaction before swiping his student card and stomping into his dorm residence.


	2. ii

Hansol picks sadly at his chocolate pudding as Wonwoo and Mingyu breeze past him on their skateboards. Mingyu wobbles, nearly falling on his face and that’s a sight that would usually get at least a chuckle out of Hansol. But today is different and he chooses to wallow in despair.

Seungcheol sets his board down and slides onto the bench next to him. “Why the long face?”

“It’s stupid,” he responds. Because it is and he knows Seungcheol probably wouldn’t laugh at him but a part of him is still too embarrassed.

“I’m sure it’s not,” Seungcheol tries again and Hansol shakes his head. “Alright, buddy,” the older man shrugs with a kind smile. “You know we’re all here for you if you want to talk.”

He picks up his board and zooms away. And that’s what Hansol appreciates the most about his friends. They were always there to listen to him but they wouldn’t pry too much if he told them he wasn’t ready to talk. He looks back down at his food and takes another, somber bite. 

Everyday, from five to eight in the evening, Hansol would practice his flips and ollies in the university skatepark. And everyday, from six to seven in the evening, he’d hope to catch a glimpse of Boo Seungkwan walking back to his dorm next to the skatepark. Today was no different, except Seungkwan _saw_ him, like he had been staring at Hansol first. But of course he couldn’t be that lucky. Hansol had almost worked up the courage to smile at him until Seungkwan all but glared at him and Hansol looked away, his cheeks burning.

Great. He thought Seungkwan didn’t even know he existed, which was bad enough but apparently he knew him _and_ disliked him. He probably thought Hansol was a creep and _oh fuck_ , maybe this was because of what happened in their philosophy lecture last semester. Or really, what _hadn’t_ happened. Seungkwan had been a boisterous, yet entertaining and positive presence in the class and Hansol had been too shy to talk to him.

He sighs again, tuning out Mingyu and Wonwoo’s loud bickering from a few metres away. Maybe he should talk to Seungcheol about his hopeless crush after all. He might have some advice for him to finally move on from it and-

“Oh, _hey_ Jeonghan!” Hansol looks up and there’s Seungcheol doing an over-exaggerated flip trick in front of one Yoon Jeonghan, who actually looks somewhat amused. He watches Seungcheol skate over to the other man, who’s leaning over the fencing of the park. Hansol can make out quiet laughter and a joke Seungcheol already told him earlier this week, before Jeonghan walks away with a casual wave a few minutes later. Seungcheol skates back to the bench, pumping his fist once.

“Did you see that, Hansollie?” he asks excitedly. “He totally digs me!”

Hansol fights the urge to roll his eyes. _Scratch that._

  
  
  
  


“You look like shit today.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” Minghao smiles and turns back to his painting. It’s an abstract art piece, all yellows and greens and Hansol feels dizzy just looking at it. 

With just one look at him, anyone could tell Minghao was an artist. Paints and watercolours were thrown carelessly around his dorm room, art history books mixed up in between. He also wore a beret around school, which might have looked terrible on other people but Minghao could always pull off any outfit. He was different from Hansol’s skater friends, with his brutal honesty and sharp wit. Hansol supposes Wonwoo was a bit like that too, but he doesn’t know if they’d even get along. Hansol likes to keep his friend groups separate, not daring enough to adjust his personality to fit everyone’s all at once. It wasn’t like that was going to be a problem anytime soon, since he didn’t have that many friends to begin with.

“Stop staying up so late,” Minghao sniffs with faux concern, dipping his brush into the jar of rinsing water. “It’s horrible for your skin.”

“You’re horrible for my skin,” Hansol retorts weakly and the older man tuts at him. “What are you working on, anyway?”

“The project due in March,” Minghao picks up the canvas from the easel and holds it up proudly. “Weren’t you there when the prof talked about it?”

“That’s not due for another three months! Why are you starting it now?”

Minghao’s just insane. “‘Cause I want to finish it as quickly as possible so I can work on sets for R and J.”

“Damn, you’re on crew again?” Hansol asks him. “Did you already forget what happened last term?”

He recalls Minghao’s bloodshot eyes and the empty cans of energy drinks littered around his room and the backstage of the theatre. His Chinese friend had been on the verge of tears every other second as he stayed up night after night working on his homework _and_ the set pieces for _Frankenstein_. Hansol had offered to help him once or twice but he had always been turned down.

“I know, I know,” Minghao shrugs. “But I still had fun, even though I got like, twenty minutes of sleep every night. And I think we’re reusing some of the sets from last year so I think it won’t be as bad.”

“Can I help this time?” Hansol thinks he knows the answer, but asks anyway.

Minghao raises an eyebrow as he sets the painting on the floor. “You want to help with the play? I mean, sure.”

_Does he?_ Hansol thinks about it some more. Working on the play with Minghao would mean he’d get to hang out with his friend while participating in an activity they both enjoyed; Hansol had always considered himself to have an appreciation of the visual arts, even if he’s not as crazy about it as Minghao is. On the other hand, working on the play with Minghao would also mean they’d have to be around a lot of _people_ , most of them _strangers_ and Hansol wasn’t great with strangers. It would be like joining a club where everyone already knew each other, which happened to be a lot of the clubs at their university anyway. But it’d still give Hansol something else to do besides skating and homework. Mingyu and Wonwoo had recently joined the photography club and Seungcheol had been disappearing early from the skatepark on some days anyway.

“Yeah, sure. I’m in,” he finally decides and Minghao grins, before unwrapping another blank canvas. And as much as Hansol tries to ignore it, there’s another reason he wants to join the backstage crew. But Minghao doesn’t need to know about that. 

Yet. Maybe not ever.

  
  
  
  


The last time Hansol had sat in the auditorium, it had been during the university production of _Frankenstein._

He had come to watch Joshua play the highly-coveted role of Tree Number Five, as well as to check out how Minghao’s set pieces turned out. Or at least, those were the only reasons he had cited to his friends. It wasn’t like Hansol had also been looking forward to a performance by a certain brown-haired boy with chubby cheeks or anything. _Nope._

Seungkwan was caked in green makeup, a fake scar running down the length of his face and two large bolts attached to the side of his head as he grunted his lines and danced across the stage. The boy just radiated confidence everywhere he went, the stage being no exception and Hansol was in awe of it all. He’d put on an amazing performance, and Hansol couldn’t even say he was biased; everyone had praised Seungkwan and his ability to take on such a huge role despite only being a freshman. Hansol considered going up to him after the play and congratulating him on his performance, before remembering that Seungkwan was Seungkwan and he was just Hansol. Quiet, invisible Hansol, who cycled between spending most of his time alone and complaining to his five friends about being lonely.

Now he’s back inside the theatre and  _ fuck, this was a mistake.  _ A sea of unfamiliar faces surrounds him and he can’t find Minghao anywhere. Hansol takes cautious steps up the stairs dividing the upper seats, towards the tech booth, where a blond boy with a headset sits and taps on the lightboard. 

The window of the booth is already opened and the guy looks friendly enough. Okay, he can do this! Hansol opens his mouth, prepared to ask if Tech Booth Guy has seen Minghao around- fuck, what if he doesn’t even know who Minghao is? No, he must- didn’t all of the stage crew know each other already?

Another step. “Uh, hi-”

“Chan! I said bring down Light Six, not Seven!” The guy shouts through his headset and Hansol jerks away. From his view of the stage, he spots one of the stage lights getting pulled up and then another one being slowly lowered. 

Okay, this guy was clearly busy already. Taking another scan around the auditorium, Hansol recognizes the young woman sitting cross-legged in a black folding chair with the word “DIRECTOR” in big white letters on the back. She’s talking to a shorter, grumpy-looking man with a clipboard. Hansol decides that maybe it’s better to pretend he doesn’t know that the man is one of Seungkwan’s friends. For a second, he considers looking for Seungkwan himself. No, that’d be just about the worst thing he could try right now.

All of a sudden, he hears a distinctive yell burst through the chatter in the crowd. “Yo, Vernon! Over here!” 

And thank goodness for Hong Joshua! How could he have forgotten about him? It’s okay- Joshua is a familiar face that will make Hansol feel welcome here! He makes his way down the stairs and Joshua continues waving at him wildly. He was one of a few people at this school who called Hansol by his English name, since he went by his own. Joshua had been his orientation leader and sometimes Hansol wonders if it’s sad that one of the few people he keeps in touch with had originally been paid to hang out with him. But Joshua had kept approaching him even after freshman orientation week was long over and Hansol supposes he has nothing to worry about by now.

“So, are you playing a tree again?” he jokes and Joshua laughs, shaking his head. “No? Maybe a mountain this time? Or did they demote you to a bush instead?”

“You crack me up, dude,” Joshua pretends to wipe a tear from his eye and a warm buzz settles in Hansol’s stomach. So what if he likes being told he’s funny?

When he realizes Hansol is being serious, Joshua tilts his head to the side, confused. “Did I not tell you?” And the warm feeling disappears. _Right,_ Joshua has other friends besides Hansol- friends who’d hear all his good news first, friends who’d flock to him and interrupt whatever conversation Hansol would try to-

“Shua-hyung!” Another, louder voice interrupts them and they both turn around. A sophomore Hansol vaguely recognizes rushes down the stairs and almost slams into his side. He’s taller than both of them, with light chestnut hair and he wears a huge grin on his face despite his obvious struggle to hold up two very tall drinks in his hands. Hansol debates whether he should give this guy a cool nod or a polite smile. He looks like someone who would smile back.

“Here, I got you an iced coffee!” he beams, holding out one of the drinks and Joshua takes it carefully from him. “And uh, I also wanted to say that I’m really excited to work with you and um, let’s do a good job together!”

Joshua laughs good-naturedly. “Why are you being so formal all of a sudden? We’re already friends, Seokmin.”

_Ah._ Lee Seokmin. Hansol remembers him now. He played the Doctor in _Frankenstein_ and he was in Hansol’s philosophy class, having sat in the same row even, but just far enough away that it would be too difficult to even ask about the classwork. And it wouldn’t have been a guarantee that Hansol would have said anything to him anyway.

The tips of Seokmin’s ears turn red and he mumbles something under his breath before he finally notices Hansol’s presence. “Hey! I know you!”

“You do?” Hansol blurts out and Seokmin nods happily. 

“Yeah! You were in our phil class, right? You always had your headphones in so I guess I never got to say hi.” And Hansol feels dumb, quickly pushing away thoughts of his self-sabotage.

“So uh, hi!” Seokmin continues, the smile never once leaving his face. “I’m Seokmin.”

_I know,_ Hansol almost says, then decides against it and introduces himself instead. Joshua scoffs and lightly elbows Seokmin in the ribs. “You’d know who he was if you didn’t spend every class drawing dicks in Seungkwan’s notebook.”

_Seungkwan._ Hansol tries to keep his expression neutral. It’s odd, in a way, hearing these sparse and nonchalant stories about Seungkwan from his actual friends. It’s like Seokmin has unintentionally reminded Hansol just how little the crush he’s been harbouring matters in the end. Because Seungkwan has his own circles, somehow simultaneously tight-knit and large, and none of them include Hansol.

“I mean, he makes it so easy,” Seokmin giggles and Hansol can barely smile back before Seokmin turns back to Joshua, eagerly grabbing his hand. “So uh, I was thinking we could get a headstart on practicing our scenes. You know, since we have so many and we wouldn’t want to mix them all up, right? Do you want to come over later? Maybe we could start on Act One Scene Five-”

“How _could_ you?” A new voice cuts in and they all turn to see Boo Seungkwan stomping towards them, steam practically coming out of his ears. On instinct, Hansol straightens his back and crosses his arms over his chest, trying to act natural.

But who is he kidding? Seungkwan’s not even looking at him.

“Hyung, why would you do this?” he gapes at Joshua. “You knew I wanted to be Juliet! And you auditioned for the part _behind my back?_ ”

“I didn’t!” Joshua exclaims back before Hansol can congratulate him. “I thought you had the part for sure. Nayoung just asked me to read lines with Seok ‘cause you scared away everyone from auditioning for Juliet. Then she told me that she liked my chemistry with him, so...” 

Hansol doesn’t miss the way Joshua’s voice goes quiet at that last sentence. Seokmin just hums quietly. “Boo, weren’t you there when we were reading the lines?”

“I- I thought you guys were just flirting,” Seungkwan sputters. “You know, like you always do.”

Hansol lets out a half-snort, half-laugh without thinking and Joshua shoots him a look. Hansol holds up his hands defensively, making a mental note to tease him later rather than now. To his surprise, Seungkwan looks at him too.

“See, he agrees with me!” he declares, gesturing at Hansol. And _holy shit_ , did Seungkwan just acknowledge him? Hansol celebrates in his head for a second, confetti raining everywhere, before he realizes how dumb he sounds. 

It doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter.

A squeak of exasperation leaves Joshua’s lips before he throws his head back and groans, walking away from them without another word. Seokmin lets out a half-hearted scoff at them too before following Joshua, sipping on his drink as he leaves. Hansol tries to catch Seungkwan’s eye again but the other man barely spares him another glance, marching away towards the tiny stage manager. 

“It’s pretty privilege!” he hears him protest next and Hansol sees the stage manager- Jihoon?- squint in response.

“What are you on about now?”

“You know- Joshua got the part ‘cause he’s pretty and blond. That’s why you guys cast him!”

_You’re pretty too,_ Hansol wants to tell him. He doesn’t, because he’s too far away and he doesn’t think Seungkwan’s reaction to someone like Hansol telling him this will be as pretty as he is.

“For fuck’s sake-” Jihoon groans, his hand slapping his forehead. “First of all, only Nayoung has control over who gets what part. And second of all, you are also pretty and you can dye your hair whenever you want.”

And once again, Hansol’s reminded of how many people Seungkwan already has who remind him how beautiful he is. He’s not so delusional that he thinks Seungkwan is without flaws- the whole display with Joshua just now seemed to show just that- but Hansol couldn’t help but admire the way he didn’t seem to care about what anyone else thought. Ever. Seungkwan always played to win and Hansol just thought that was pretty cool.


	3. iii

“Alright, listen up, everyone!” Nayoung claps her hands and the room grows quiet. “We took the time to make everyone personalized scripts with your parts highlighted, along with the blocking Jihoon has written for you so far. So replace your current scripts with these ones and learn and memorize all of your lines as soon as possible. Come to us if you have any questions. Other than that, rehearsals are done for the day so...get out, I guess.”

Seungkwan rubs at his eyes as the director begins to pass the scripts around. “Taehyung- Paris, Jungkook- Friar Lawrence, Seungkwan- Tybalt…”

He groans. As pathetic as it sounds, he’s still having trouble accepting his role and they had already completed their first read-through of the script just minutes ago. Nayoung hands him his copy and Seungkwan swears she smirked at him when he took it. The rest of the actors start to file out of the auditorium, the buzz of the room returning and Seungkwan strolls over to his friends sitting on the stairs. Jihoon is explaining something to Joshua while Seokmin plays with the foam sword props beside them. Jeonghan is nowhere to be found, Seungkwan notices. He had shown up to rehearsal ten minutes late, read his lines, and then disappeared as quickly as he arrived.

“Hey guys!” he starts, approaching his friends with a wide smile. “Does anyone want to grab dinner with me?”

“Now?” Jihoon frowns and Seungkwan nods quickly. He had been craving noodles, specifically the ones from the sketchy university basement food court. Of course, the only thing better than sketchy food court noodles was sketchy food court noodles _with friends,_ and Seungkwan simply couldn’t wait.

But Jihoon shakes his head. “I can’t, I need to make some phone calls to other schools to see if we can borrow any of their costumes again.”

“Already? Can’t Nayoung do that?”

“That’s what I told her, and she’s making me do it anyway,” Jihoon shrugs like he has already resigned to his fate.

“Since when do you listen to other people telling you what to do?”

“Since I started getting paid for it,” Jihoon says matter-of-factly, rolling his eyes before his expression softens. “Look, I’ll grab food with you another time, okay? Promise.”

“Fine,” Seungkwan grumbles and Jihoon slings his bag over his shoulder, waving goodbye to them as he heads out of the theatre. Seungkwan looks at the other two. “How about you guys?”

“Sorry Boo, but we’ve got plans too,” Joshua shoots him an apologetic smile and Seokmin finally sets the props down.

“What kind of plans?” Seungkwan demands to know as they gather up their belongings. “Oooh, are you guys going on a date?”

“No!” Joshua replies a little too quickly.

“No?” Seokmin echoes, disappointment laced in his tone. 

“I mean-” Joshua flushes bright red and Seungkwan fights back laughter. “I- Boo, stop it. We’ll go with you another time, alright?”

“Okay,” the youngest agrees gruffly. Before he knows it, the auditorium is empty, leaving him to stew alone. He grabs his bag, muttering to himself about his so-called friends as he heads towards the exit.

He has a hand on the door handle when he hears a sudden crash. Seungkwan whips his head around, looking for the source. A short rattling sound follows before- “ _Aughhhh_!”

It was coming from backstage. Should he go check it out? What if the theatre was haunted? No, there was nothing to be scared of. Seungkwan makes up his mind and tip-toes back down the stairs and up the stage. The cold fabric of the curtain shakes under his fingers and with a deep breath, he brushes it away to reveal the backstage door. 

He pushes on the handle without a second thought, and the dimly-lit backstage room unravels in front of him. There’s no ghost, but there’s somebody lying on the ground next to the wood stock. He’s covered in several planks and sheets of wood. Seungkwan hears a snicker from behind him and nearly jumps out of his skin.

“Boo!”

_“Boo!”_ Seungkwan screams back, turning around and scaring them in return. 

“No, Boo! Boo Seungkwan!” the figure shouts in his face, his eyes shielded by his black baseball cap. Seungkwan squints at him and _doesn’t he sound an awful lot like_ -

“Chan?”

“Yeah it’s me, you goof,” Chan takes his hat off and Seungkwan lets out a sigh of relief. Lee Chan had been in several of his lectures and they had hung out a few times outside of class. But Seungkwan hasn’t seen him since they came back from winter break. He throws an arm around Chan, putting him in a headlock.

“Freakin’ ass, you almost scared me just now,” he teases, messing up Chan’s hair. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

A sudden, long groan erupts from a few feet away and the two freshmen turn to see the guy on the ground holding his head in blatant agony, a two-by-four clutched in his other hand. Chan rolls his eyes and walks over to help him up.

“Furry-hyung looks so dumb on the ground like that.”

“Stop calling me that!” the man scolds him as he dusts off his trousers and looks up at Seungkwan with a nervous chuckle. “Don’t listen to him, I swear I’m not a furry.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Seungkwan replies, even though the little tigers on the man’s shirt looks like they’re about to jump out and eat him. 

“Thanks.” The man’s eyes light up in recognition. “Hey, you’re on the cast, aren’t you? You play Mercutio or Benvolio or whoever.”

“I’m playing Tybalt,” Seungkwan corrects with gritted teeth. Great, the end of his theatre career had already begun. The strange man waves his hand in the air nonchalantly.

“Right, yes yes. Well, I’m Soonyoung! The new head of the stage crew!”

“Wait, what happened to Jongin and Sehun?” Seungkwan furrows his brow, remembering the two seniors who had led the tech work for last semester’s play, as well as several others prior to Seungkwan’s admittance to the university.

“They graduated?” Soonyoung laughs far too manically. “Ran off with their degrees, never to return?”

“Then where did you come from?”

“I used to do tech for one of the other theatre troupes here but- you know the stage manager Jihoon? He’s my new roommate and he threatened me to join this one instead. You guys do have the best equipment!”

Seungkwan vaguely recalls Jihoon mentioning an “obnoxious new roommate” and Soonyoung continues to babble on. “This is my protege, Chan. But it looks like you know each other already.”

“Unfortunately. I’m Seungkwan, by the way.”

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you Mister Seungkwan!” Soonyoung winks exaggeratedly at him. “As you can see, we’re having just a wee bit of trouble sorting out the wood situation back here! They want us to start building the tower for the balcony scene.”

“Already? Can we reuse the one from last year?”

Soonyoung sighs dramatically. “Apparently it was demolished after the last performance. There’s only five of us on backstage crew this term so I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“Aw, come on, hyung,” Chan adjusts the band of his cap before putting it back on his head. “We can totally manage it! I’m pretty confident with the lightboard already and I can definitely learn the mics and soundboard by the time tech rehearsals start.”

“I hope so, little pal. Or I’ll ask Minghao to do it, ‘cause I’ve known Junhui for three days and I already feel wary about him touching the equipment. By the way, where’s the other one?”

“Other one?” Seungkwan inquires. Junhui had been the makeup artist for _Frankenstein_ so he appeared mainly during dress rehearsals. He was a little odd, but in the most harmless and hilarious way so Seungkwan liked him just fine. Minghao, on the other hand, worked on the set pieces mostly at night so Seungkwan rarely saw him and, as a result, did not get to know him very well. But who else had joined the crew?

“Oh, there he is!” Chan looks over Seungkwan’s shoulder and waves. Seungkwan turns around and- 

_No. Way._

Soonyoung grins and runs over to Hansol, steering him by the shoulders towards their group while Seungkwan tries to resist the urge to scream at the top of his lungs. _Hansol?_ What the fuck was he doing on crew? Didn’t he know the entire stretch of the auditorium, including the backstage, was Seungkwan’s territory and Seungkwan’s territory _alone?_

“Well, Mister Seungkwan- have you met our newest recruit?” Soonyoung practically pushes the skater into him. “This is Hansol! He doesn’t know _anything_ about theatre production but that’s okay, ‘cause we’re all here to learn!”

“Hansol’s a first year too, right dude?” Chan smiles at him and _seriously?_ Even Chan had betrayed him. Hansol has the absolute audacity to nod and let out a small smile and Seungkwan fumes on the inside. He had seen Hansol talking to Joshua and Seokmin a few days ago right before Nayoung started the first cast meeting but he had thought nothing of it, too appalled about Joshua playing Juliet to care about anything else at that moment. 

Hansol gives him an awkward smile and Seungkwan plasters a grimace onto his face. He had been right all along- Hansol had no idea who he was. Seungkwan sniffs and looks away. He swears that he sees Hansol’s face fall. _Good. That’ll show him not to mess with me._

“Um,” Hansol coughs, before turning to Soonyoung. “I got the stencils you wanted,” he mumbles, handing Soonyoung a plastic bag and _how dare he!_ Seungkwan bets that the bag _doesn’t_ have the stencils Soonyoung wanted.

“Thank you, my dude. This is _exactly_ what I wanted!” Soonyoung exclaims.

_Drats!_ Seungkwan knows his eye is twitching but it doesn’t matter- he _wants_ Hansol to know who’s in charge here. Soonyoung sets the bag down on a nearby chair and places one hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder and the other on Hansol’s. “Let’s blow this popsicle joint. Chan and I were gonna get dinner at the food court, so you two are coming with us!”

Seungkwan holds in a shriek. _Oh no no no no no._ This was not happening. There was no way he was hanging out with that- that arrogant asshole who thought Seungkwan was too beneath him to talk to!

“Oh, actually I already have food at home!” he tells them hastily. Soonyoung just laughs in his face.

“Well, then you can eat it tomorrow! Perhaps for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. Maybe all three! Tonight, we’re all going out for basement noodles!” he announces and Seungkwan sighs. He had only just met Soonyoung but he could already tell that the man was very persuasive. Plus, he _had_ been thinking about those noodles.

“Fine,” he shakes his head, hoping Hansol knows exactly why he’s annoyed. 

  
  
  
  


Twenty minutes later, Seungkwan finds himself slurping up the noodles he had been looking forward to all day. Soonyoung sits beside him and Seungkwan doesn’t think he’s ever met somebody so chatty. Well, maybe Seokmin but he wasn’t here right now. He shudders at the thought of listening to both Soonyoung and Seokmin shout at each other. And that nightmare wasn’t too far out of reach; now that Soonyoung was apparently the new head of stage crew, it wouldn’t be long before he became properly acquainted with the cast.

“You know, Mister Boo- I think this might be the start of a beautiful friendship!”

_Hm._ Seungkwan would have to see.

He catches up with Chan, reminiscing on their winter breaks and giggling along with the younger’s efforts at irritating Soonyoung. Chan guffaws so hard that a noodle comes out of his nose and that just makes Seungkwan laugh harder. The server at the sketchy noodle stall accidentally gives him extra shrimp in his meal and there he is, eating noodles with his friends like he planned. It’s an all around good time!

Except for one small detail.

Seungkwan glowers at Hansol, who’s sitting across from him fiddling with his chopsticks. The skater had barely said a word the entire time, especially to Seungkwan and _why would anyone do that?_ He notices Hansol let out quiet snickers from time to time, mostly at Chan and Soonyoung’s jokes. Did he- did he just not think Seungkwan was funny? But Seungkwan is hilarious! Seungkwan should be the funniest person he’s ever met! Hansol should be rolling on the dirty food court floor, nearly in tears at Seungkwan’s funny jokes and roasts. He should be begging to come watch Seungkwan perform a professional comedy act, and then sigh in despair and anguish once Seungkwan sadly informs him that he is _not_ a comedian. 

And he should _also_ have noodles coming out of his nose! But Hansol just sits there silently, only nodding along and answering when Soonyoung and Chan ask him questions directly. Maybe- maybe Seungkwan could _also_ ask him questions- no! No, he can’t do that- it would be breaking the law he set for himself about succumbing to the desires of others- Hansol probably wants Seungkwan to speak to him first. He probably wants Seungkwan to ask him an innocent question, like “How is the food?” or “How do you know Josh?” Hansol wants Seungkwan to talk to him just so he can reject his offer of conversation and bask in the glow of believing he squashed all of Seungkwan’s hopes and dreams!

Chan and Soonyoung begin arguing about the lighting cues again and Hansol finally looks him in the eye. Seungkwan notices him take a deep breath- probably getting ready to shoot him down before Seungkwan even says anything, that little-

“So, uh- how’s the food?”

Oh. Seungkwan catches himself and looks down at his noodles again. “It’s good.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.” From his peripheral vision, Seungkwan sees Hansol look away. He smirks to himself- he had the last word! He won! And the best part was, Hansol wasn’t going to try that again.

“So, um...you know Josh?” Hansol speaks up again. “I mean- _pfft,_ of course you know Josh. You were in the play with him last year,” he mumbles, shaking his head.

“Yeah. We’re friends,” Seungkwan bites back, not missing a beat. “We hang out outside of productions too.”

And he just keeps winning today! Seungkwan smiles smugly. _This guy doesn’t stand a chance._

“Cool, cool. Uh, me too. Like, I also hang out with him out- outside of school. Yeah. Totally.”

_What is his problem?_ Seungkwan almost rolls his eyes. He usually wouldn’t think twice about doing so, but he doesn’t want to win in such a passionate manner. Hansol wants to rile him up, he just knows it. Hansol wants him to give in first, he wants Seungkwan to stumble in their little fake polite conversation so he can swoop in and have the first and last laugh.

But Seungkwan’s not going to fall for Chwe Hansol’s trickery, his witchcraft or any of his silly games! The only thing left to do was to seal the deal and end the conversation. There was nothing left to say anyway. Couldn’t Hansol see that they didn’t have anything in common besides enjoying the noodles and enjoying Joshua’s company? Well, when he wasn’t being a little part-stealing traitor hyung anyway.

So he picks up his chopsticks and shoves noodles into his mouth, still not looking at Hansol. The other boy sighs a little and starts eating again too and Seungkwan smiles, cheeks stuffed with food. Hansol had failed! He tried so hard to get something, anything out of Seungkwan but it didn’t work. Seungkwan wasn’t going to talk to somebody so stuck-up and pretentious, much less be friends with them. Just because Hansol had joined _his_ play and hung out with _his_ friends didn’t have to mean anything.

Because it didn’t. Seungkwan swears to make sure of that.


	4. iv

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: vomit (not super descriptive but yeah)

_Well. That could have gone better._

Hansol slinks to his bed, exhausted from the day that had commenced. He flops onto the mattress and pushes his pillow over his face with a groan, events from hours prior flooding into his mind. It had taken every ounce of courage he had to even initiate that short, brief conversation with Seungkwan. But the other boy had been so dismissive towards his attempts of building a rapport and it _hurt,_ to say the least. 

What was he doing wrong? Did he say something that could have offended Seungkwan? Hansol mulls over the conversation, which didn’t take particularly long since it was not a particularly long conversation. He can’t think of what it could be; all he had done was gently ask how Seungkwan’s meal was- wait, maybe that was too generic, too _boring_ of a question. Oh no, did Seungkwan think he was incapable of starting an interesting conversation? Was that it?

And then Hansol had asked if he knew Joshua- which, looking back, was possibly the dumbest, most impulsive question he could have considered. Of course Seungkwan was friends with Joshua. Of course Hansol just _had_ to fuck up and make himself appear super uninteresting and super stupid. 

_I’m so stupid._

He sighs, moving the pillow to his chest and crosses his arms over it. The only bright side of all this was that at least Hansol didn’t embarrass himself even more by asking more questions. Seungkwan had made his feelings perfectly clear.

The least Hansol can do now is respect them.

  
  
  
  


Meetings between the stage crew were held on Tuesdays. They took place backstage, which Hansol thinks is odd, because the cast also held some of their rehearsals- their very, very _loud_ rehearsals on stage on Tuesdays. 

He’s on his way to the theatre, when a sudden slam of a nearby door makes him jump. Hansol turns around cautiously, only to spot nothing. He shrugs to himself and turns back, about to resume his journey when he hears the door open again.

He whips around once more, the tall, white building behind him catching his eye. Two figures are standing next to it and _is that Seungcheol?_ Hansol frowns as he watches them exchange what looks like a couple sheets of paper.

Weird. The other person looked like Jeonghan, which wouldn’t be too surprising. Hansol knows they’ve been spending a lot of time together lately, with Jeonghan visiting the skatepark to have conversations with Seungcheol that went on for at least forty-five minutes, or until Wonwoo got annoyed and dragged his friend away.

Hansol squints at them. The two figures whisper to each other, before the one who looks like Seungcheol looks both ways, and heads back into the building. The other one runs off into the large group of trees next to the building, disappearing before Hansol can get a better look at his face. _Well then._ He makes a note to bug Seungcheol about it the next time he sees him. 

Soon, Hansol arrives at the theatre. When he swings open the auditorium doors, he’s met with a loud whine ringing from downstage right. Seokmin is lying down and holding his elbow in agony, with Joshua kneeling beside him holding a couple of paper towels and bandaids.

“Is this- is this part of the play?” Hansol whispers to Soonyoung in the tech booth, gesturing at the two of them as Joshua pats at Seokmin’s wound with a towel and the younger continues to whimper. Soonyoung snorts and shakes his head.

“Nah, Seokmin just scraped his elbow on a loose nail.”

From below the stage, Nayoung sighs tiredly from her seat. “Can Romeo please stop rolling around the stage and get back to the scene?”

Seokmin promptly ignores her. “Hyung, it hurts!” he pouts at Joshua and Hansol swears he sees tears welling up in Seokmin’s eyes.

“You big baby,” Joshua comments teasingly, the hint of a smile crossing his face. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you don’t get a nasty infection.”

“Thank you,” Seokmin sniffles, before his tears subside comically as Joshua finishes cleaning his wound. They both stand back up, giggling and Nayoung rolls her eyes. 

“Alright, so Romeo meets Juliet at the masquerade and he uses a horrendous pickup line. And it works. Somehow. Romeo kisses Juliet-”

“Oh, is that right?” Seokmin gasps exaggeratedly. He smiles coyly. “I had no idea we were already at the kissing scene!”

“Bullshit, I literally saw him chewing gum earlier,” Soonyoung whispers to Hansol, who also stifles a laugh. Was Seokmin for real? Then again, he probably doesn’t have room to judge, considering he can’t even talk to his own crush without making a gigantic fool of himself. And it looks like Joshua actually enjoys talking to Seokmin instead of looking like he’s having the worst time of his life. Hansol knows he can’t say the same about himself and Seungkwan.

“We starting the meeting or what?” Minghao comes up from behind Hansol a minute later. Soonyoung shushes him.

“Wait, I wanted to watch them make a fool of themselves first,” Soonyoung laughs and they watch as the two lead actors lean in, about to share their first stage kiss. Suddenly, Joshua pulls back and sneezes into his arm. Soonyoung howls, slapping his knee and ignoring the glare Seokmin shoots him from the stage.

“Okay okay, _now_ we can start the meeting.” Soonyoung pretends to wipe a tear from his eye, before beckoning for Hansol and Minghao to follow him backstage.

  
  
  
  


Soonyoung divides up the tasks for them, explaining that while Junhui was in charge of costumes and makeup and Minghao was in charge of sets, they would all have to learn lightboard, soundboard, and microphones.

“We also need someone to do follow-spot for the scenes that need it.”

“Um, what’s a follow-spot?” Hansol asks sheepishly, pleasantly surprised when Soonyoung doesn’t roll his eyes at his lack of knowledge. Then again, he always thought the tech head was a pretty nice guy, for the short time he’s known him at least.

“It’s like a spotlight that you operate manually. We use it to follow one actor around the stage,” Chan explains to him with a patient smile and Hansol nods appreciatively. At least the crew was pretty cool and welcoming to a first-timer in the theatre like himself. The cast was also pretty nice, for the most part. Joshua had introduced him to Jeonghan the other day, and Jeonghan had immediately given him a hug, loudly proclaiming that he was so excited to meet “Shua’s little frosh friend.”

Hansol still thinks Jihoon is a little scary but he quickly finds out the stage manager just wants everyone to stay on task during working hours. Soonyoung explains that Jihoon is also supposed to be at the crew meetings but that he’ll join after he finishes the first draft of the blocking for the whole script.

“Also! A reminder that the movie viewing starts at seven tonight,” Soonyoung adds. All of the cast and crew had been invited to watch a screening of one of the many bizarre movie adaptations of _Romeo and Juliet_ in one of the unused classrooms in the same building as the theatre. Soonyoung dismisses the meeting and Hansol walks up to Minghao, who has been doodling in his sketchbook almost the entire time Soonyoung was talking.

“You wanna come get food before the movie?” he asks. “I’m going to the new sushi place.”

Minghao shakes his head.“I think I’m gonna stay here and keep working on the designs.”

“You sure?” Hansol frowns. He really doesn’t want Minghao to overwork himself again, recalling how tired he had been last semester. Minghao nods affirmatively and Hansol shrugs. “Suit yourself. Just make sure you allow some breaks for yourself, okay?”

He asks if Minghao wants him to bring food back for him but the artist just waves him away politely, saying that he didn’t want fish and Hansol gives him a thumbs up, reminding him that he still has to remember to eat. He retreats back to the front of the auditorium, bumping into Joshua in the wings.

“Hey, do you have dinner plans?” Hansol asks and before he knows it, Joshua agrees to eat with him. They’re about to head out of the theatre when Seokmin approaches them, his bag slung casually over his shoulder.

“There you are-” he beams at Joshua. “Uh, do you want to get dinner with me, hyung?” Seokmin rocks back and forth on his heels. “You can pick the place this time- or, I mean there aren’t that many places on campus but you know-”

“Sorry, I just promised Vernon I’d get sushi with him,” Joshua tells him with an apologetic smile.

“You can come with us,” Hansol offers quickly when he sees Seokmin’s face fall and Joshua nods enthusiastically.

“It’s alright. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your plans,” Seokmin mumbles, picking at a thread on his jeans. “Jaehyun’s getting curry with Kyulkyung and Taeyong and he asked me if I wanted to come, anyway.”

He turns back and takes off towards a group waiting by the doors. Hansol looks at Joshua. “Why didn’t you go with him? I wouldn’t have minded.”

Joshua shrugs, smiling at him. “I said I’d go with you first and I know you’re more comfortable with one-on-one hangouts, right?”

“Right,” Hansol says slowly. Deep down, he can’t help but feel just a bit delighted at his hyung’s words. He had always thought their friendship didn’t mean that much to Joshua- after all, the guy was pretty popular. Perhaps he had it all wrong.

  
  
  
  


“You know, hyung- I think your onstage Romeo wants to be your real-life Romeo too.”

“I know,” Joshua hums. Hansol looks at him incredulously as Joshua slurps quietly from his bowl of miso soup. How could he be so nonchalant about this kind of thing?

“So, do you like him back?”

“Of course I do,” Joshua smiles and seriously? How could he say that so calmly? If Seungkwan ever liked Hansol back- _not that he would_ , of course, but if he did, Hansol wouldn’t be able to stop freaking out.

“Seokmin’s very sweet and kind. Talented, too. And I know him pretty well already, so it’s not super awkward,” Joshua continues with a cheery tone and wow, maybe it was just Hansol who would panic in this situation.

“Why aren’t you dating him already, then?”

Joshua shrugs and the waitress comes over with their plates of sashimi. The salmon slices in front of Hansol look oddly...pale but he decides he’s hungry enough not to bring it up. He had always felt guilty about sending food back anyway.

“Well- we’ve kind of, um. Already gone out on a date. Or two,” Joshua snaps his chopsticks apart, his hands shaking as he starts shoving tuna into his mouth. “Well, sort of- I’m not really sure if those were dates but he said they were but maybe he was joking. Anyway! Yeah. I mean, it’s okay, I don’t want to rush things anyway. So I guess you could say we’re still in the cute little courting phase right now.”

If Seungkwan ever wanted to have a cute little courting phase with him- again, _not that he would,_ but _hypothetically_ \- Hansol wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it with Joshua when he could- in this extremely hypothetical situation- be courting Seungkwan properly and spending as much time with him as Seungkwan was comfortable with.

“Please don’t tell anyone, by the way,” Joshua adds. “I don’t want to deal with their teasing right now.”

“Of course.” _Who would I tell anyway?_ “My lips are sealed.”

“Thanks, Vernon. I know I can always count on you.”

They talk about other things, from boring school work to new hobbies. Hansol shares an anecdote about Mingyu and his new job at a donut shop and Joshua explains how Jeonghan has been disappearing everytime their friends get together. Hansol is about to bring up what he saw this afternoon, when Joshua changes the topic again.

“So, got anyone special in your life right now?”

Hansol almost chokes, his mouth full of fish. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. Anyone special on your mind right now?”

Hansol looks down at the swirl of wasabi on his plate and honestly, he should just stop with his stupid pining. He needs to stop hoping that spending time in semi-close proximity with Seungkwan actually changes anything about his chances with him. His chances are below zero at this point.

“Nope,” he answers stiffly, taking a large gulp of water. “No one special. Nobody at all.”

  
  
  
  


Upon entering the screening classroom, Hansol takes a look around. There’s Jeonghan unpacking several coolers as he chats with Taehyung and Jungkook at the fold-out table where rows of junk food and drinks sit. Nayoung isn’t here tonight, the director having claimed she’d seen the movie too many times. Seokmin and Jaehyun play catch with a tennis ball from opposite sides of the room. Eunwoo shoots straw wrappers at Jimin and Doyeon at the back of the room while Yoojung, Taeyong, and Kyulkyung play cards near the window. 

Hansol’s fellow tech crewmates gather around Jihoon’s laptop, Soonyoung furrowing his brow as he tries to load up the movie. Hansol pulls up a chair to join them and Junhui claps him on the back as they watch their leader continue to struggle for another ten minutes. Hansol wonders where Seungkwan is, before mentally kicking himself because _you’re supposed to stop sulking about him._

As if on cue, Seungkwan strolls into the classroom, his hair combed down today and Hansol tries not to stare too hard. A cute little basket adorned with a purple ribbon hangs from Seungkwan’s wrist and Hansol watches him stop in front of Joshua, who’s on his phone near the door. Seungkwan hands him the biggest, ripest apricot Hansol has ever seen and _where did he even get those?_ It was currently January and nowhere near harvest season.

“Soonyoung,” Jeonghan calls out to him. “Can we start the movie? I think everyone’s here.”

“Sorry everyone, just give me a few more minutes,” Soonyoung chuckles sheepishly. “I’m not super great with modern technology!”

“I didn’t know we were living in 1998 but okay,” Jihoon rolls his eyes before walking over to the projector to troubleshoot from the other end.

Jeonghan smiles deviously. “Well, while we’re waiting on the movie, why don’t our two leading men give us a short preview of the scene they’ve been working on today? You know the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time?”

“Hannie, you little-” Joshua hisses at him before realizing the whole room is watching him. Junhui lets out a holler and the rest of them start egging him on. 

“I mean, sure why not?” Joshua stands up from his seat, taking Seokmin by the hand and they move into position at the front of the room. Hansol watches with quiet envy as they perform the scene. He doesn’t think he’s a very good actor and his horrifying shyness is a whole other story on its own. But Hansol would stand on stage in front of the entire university if it meant he could perform even just one romantic scene with Seungkwan.

_“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,”_ Seokmin recites, softly taking both of Joshua’s hands in his own. _“They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.”_

Hansol squints at them. Joshua looks a little...green. 

_“Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake,”_ he squeaks out and Seokmin moves his hands to the older man’s waist.

_“Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.”_ Seokmin brushes Joshua’s bangs out of his face and closes his eyes, leaning in with parted lips.

Suddenly, Joshua pushes him away and covers his mouth. “Excuse me-”

He runs to the large grey garbage bin and Hansol gasps as Joshua vomits into the trash. Several seconds of convulsing retching noises pass before Joshua slumps over and Jeonghan and Jihoon rush over to him, leading him out of the room. Seokmin stares with his jaw on the floor before he visibly swallows and looks down at the ground. Nobody else says anything for a moment before Hansol rises from his seat to follow the others, Seungkwan hot on his heels.

  
  
  
  


Jeonghan lays a hot towel over Joshua’s forehead as the latter writhes on the sofa in Nayoung’s office (Jeonghan had persuaded the director to give him the keys for the night). Hansol pats at his arm while Jihoon paces around the room. Seungkwan sits in Nayoung’s chair, jiggling his leg and Hansol can hear the movie finally starting up rooms away.

“This is so embarrassing,” Joshua groans and Jihoon scratches his head.

“What did you eat today? We can probably figure out-”

A knock on the door interrupts them and Hansol gets up to answer it.

“Hey, come in,” he holds the door open for Seokmin, who’s holding three bottles of water in his arms.

“It’s okay, I just thought hyung might want some water,” he mumbles dejectedly. “I know he doesn’t want to see me right now.”

“Seok, what are you talking about?” Joshua sits up slowly, holding the towel to his head.

Seokmin looks away with a crestfallen expression. “I mean, you literally just ran to go puke into a trash bin right as I was about to kiss you,” he replies sadly. “Look, it’s okay if you don’t want to kiss me, but I wish you just told me instead of avoiding that part of the scene all day. Am I- am I really that disgusting to be around?”

“What?” Joshua’s mouth falls open in shock. “I’m not- that’s not why I threw up. I swear, that’s not the reason.”

“But what could it be then?” Seungkwan wonders out loud. “Did you eat anything that could have gone bad earlier?”

“I ate a lot today, so it could have been anything,” Joshua moans, rolling over on the couch, beckoning for Jeonghan to pass him the designated puke bucket again.

The room falls quiet, with only the sounds of Joshua hurling into the bucket around them. Seokmin walks over and rubs his back consolingly while Hansol notices Jihoon giving Seungkwan the side-eye.

“You- you sure it wasn’t ‘cause of me?” Seokmin fidgets again and Joshua nods.

“Positive,” he says and Jihoon stands up slowly, his arms crossed.

“Well, I’m not gonna point fingers at anyone here but- Boo, I saw you bring in a basket of apricots.”

“So?” Seungkwan frowns. “We all brought snacks in for the movie? Nayoung literally suggested it and-”

Jeonghan grimaces, raising an eyebrow. “I did see you give one to Shua and I didn’t see anyone else take any yet.”

“And? Wait-” Seungkwan gasps. “Are you saying you think I tried to give Joshua food poisoning or something?”

“Boo, calm down,” Jihoon holds his hands up defensively. “Look I don’t think you intended to make him sick but I do think it was the apricots.”

“It couldn’t have been! I washed them all before I got here and I would have definitely noticed if some of them were rotten or whatever.”

“Okay, but where did you even get them from?” Jeonghan inquires. “It’s the middle of winter.”

Joshua coughs and sets the bucket down. “Look- like I said, I ate a lot today. It’s not necessarily the apricots.”

“It’s not the apricots at all!” Seungkwan protests and slaps a hand over his forehead exasperated. “I got them from my uncle’s farm. He specializes in harvesting apricots in a colder climate.”

“Well…” Jihoon starts, uncertainty remaining in his tone and Hansol feels a stab at his heart as Seungkwan looks frantically from one friend to another.

Then suddenly, he remembers. “It’s not Seungkwan,” Hansol practically yells without thinking, standing up from his spot on the couch and everyone goes silent, turning to look at him. “I, uh- I know why Josh puked. He and I got dinner at the new sushi place. I think it- it must have been the tuna sashimi or something.”

“Fish. That would most likely explain it,” Joshua waves his hand weakly, readjusting the towel as it moves down his face.

Hansol gulps as Seungkwan just stares at him for a second, an unreadable expression on his face. Maybe he shouldn’t have stepped in. Finally, Seungkwan looks away and turns back to Jihoon and Jeonghan.

“Yeah, see? It wasn’t me!”

“Shit.” Jeonghan and Jihoon exchange a look, before both of them turn to Seungkwan. “I’m really sorry I accused you,” Jihoon apologizes sincerely and Jeonghan nods in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m sorry too. We should have all known you’d be careful enough not to do that.”

“It’s fine,” Seungkwan scoffs but Hansol can tell he’s relieved that his name’s been cleared of the crime. “I’m just glad you guys believe me _now._ You can even try some of the apricots if you want. I left the basket back in the classroom.”

He turns to Joshua. “Are you gonna be okay, hyung?”

“Yeah, I already feel better. I don’t think it was even real food poisoning, just really bad sushi. But I should probably stay here for now.”

“I can- I can stay with you if you want,” Seokmin says quietly. “Only if you want, of course.”

“I’d really like that,” Joshua hums, resting his head on his shoulder and Seokmin lets out a tiny smile. Jeonghan snickers at them and Jihoon places a hand on Seungkwan’s shoulders.

“Again, we’re really sorry,” he says and Seungkwan shakes his head.

“I said it’s fine. Now, come on, we have a movie to make fun of.”

  
  
  
  


The rest of the night resumes as planned and Hansol snickers along with the others at the cheesy acting in the movie. Minghao nearly spills his soda all over Hansol’s shoes but it’s okay. Hansol’s having fun! And he’s glad he joined the production. He even volunteers to put the tables away and stack the chairs by himself, since Soonyoung and the rest of the crew had to return the equipment and the cast members finished cleaning up the food on the floor.

He’s about to start folding up the snack table when a voice speaks up from behind him.

“Hey.” Hansol turns around and he’s ashamed to admit he almost trips over his own feet when the image of Seungkwan walking up to him slowly comes into focus.

“Thanks for, you know- defending my innocence back there and all,” he mumbles, shuffling his feet.

“O-of course,” Hansol stutters, his brain freezing up for a second. He shakes out of it, because _say something, he’s looking at you._ “It-it wouldn’t have been fair to you if they just thought it was you. Because, well- you literally didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Seungkwan nods slowly. “And everyone tried the rest of the apricots and as far as I know, they’re all fine right now.”

“Uh, good. Yeah!” A mush of words keep tumbling out of his mouth. “I mean like, your friends shouldn’t have accused you to begin with.”

Seungkwan shrugs. “Yeah. I just- I especially didn’t want them to think I was trying to sabotage Joshua-hyung or something. I know they all knew I wanted to play Juliet but yeah. I’d never intentionally give him food poisoning. Not to mention, what kind of awful plan would that be? Joshua pukes for a few hours and then he comes to rehearsal on Thursday perfectly fine to keep playing his part.”

“I don’t think they ever jumped to that conclusion,” Hansol expresses gently. “I think they just thought it was a careless mistake. And it wasn’t even your mistake at all.”

“Well, yeah. Now all of us know to never go to that sushi place.” Seungkwan grimaces. “But um, are you okay, though? You also had the sashimi, right?”

“Oh, yeah I’m fine. I had a different fish and it also looked kind of weird at the restaurant but I feel fine.” Hansol tries to silence the tiny voice in his head that screams, _Seungkwan cares about me?_

“That’s good.” An awkward silence hangs in between them and Hansol is about to turn back to folding the chairs when Seungkwan pulls out one of the chairs and takes a seat in front of him.

“Um, I was also wondering- why did you join stage crew? Like, you weren’t part of it last semester. Just curious.”

He asked Hansol a question! “Um, I guess I just wanted to try something new. And I’m pretty close with Minghao, so I thought it’d be fun to hang out with him.”

“Oh, cool,” Seungkwan smiles at him and _Seungkwan smiled at him!_ Code Red, code red- Boo Seungkwan just gave him a real, sincere smile!

Okay, what now? Should he ask Seungkwan a follow-up question? Yes, that would probably be a good idea. “How about you- I mean, how did you get into theatre?”

Seungkwan’s eyes light up and _oh, fuck he’s adorable,_ Hansol thinks to himself. Without warning, the older of the two launches into a detailed outline of all the plays and musicals he’s been in thus far and Hansol listens, nodding along with genuine interest.

“Yeah, so I ended up playing Frankenstein’s Monster last year,” Seungkwan finishes with a casual shrug.

“I saw that play,” Hansol tells him enthusiastically, his timidness temporarily forgotten. “You...you were really good, by the way. In the play, I mean.”

“Of course I was,” Seungkwan scoffs a little and Hansol’s heart sinks like a marble in water. “I’m just kidding- thank you,” Seungkwan laughs- _a real, genuine laugh!-_ and Hansol knows it’s probably stupid to feel this excited but he can’t help it.

“Anyway, it’s getting late,” Seungkwan yawns. “We should head out.”

“Right.” Hansol tries not to sound too disappointed. _Should he- maybe he could-_

“Well, bye-”

“Wait, it’s really dark out,” Hansol says quickly before he has second thoughts. “I could walk you back to your dorm or something- I know where you live and-” 

The corners of Seungkwan’s mouth drop and _shit shit shit, why would you say that?_ Hansol wants to slap himself. _I know where you live?_ What was he thinking? “I mean, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me at the skatepark next to your dorm- probably not, right? But uh, I’ve seen you there. Like a few times,” he tacks on hastily.

“Yeah…” is all Seungkwan says and _fuck._ Hansol opens his mouth again, about to come up with a new excuse but Seungkwan grabs his bag and starts moving towards the doorway. 

“Thanks for the offer but I’ll be okay,” he answers with a click of his tongue and Hansol can’t wait to put this table away so he can go back to his own dorm and cry about how badly he had fumbled this interaction, which had been going _so_ well and-

“But I’ll see you at rehearsals, right?” Seungkwan turns back, meeting Hansol’s eyes. There’s a small smile on his face and Hansol feels the rush to his heart return.

“Definitely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is still a slowburn ://


	5. v

When Seungkwan arrives at his psychology lecture on Thursday, there’s a stranger in his seat.

“Um, can I help you?” he inquires, in a rather impatient manner.

The stranger chuckles and shakes his head at Jeonghan, who’s sitting beside him. “You were right, he is funny.”

“Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? Don’t you know that you’re sitting in _my_ seat?”

“Boo, calm down,” Jeonghan looks up at him, the expression in his eyes sharp enough alone but accompanied by a tight smile nonetheless. “This is Seungcheol, and he was just visiting.”

“Hey, yeah,” Seungcheol holds his hands up in defense as Seungkwan continues to gape at him. “Chill, I was about to head to the library anyway. I’ll see you later,” he adds, the latter part of the statement directed at Jeonghan.

“Yeah, for sure,” Jeonghan smiles- a _real_ smile too, Seungkwan notes. They watch as Seungcheol slings his bag over his shoulder and grabs his skateboard, bouncing away out of the lecture hall. Seungkwan eyes his board and a lightbulb flickers on over his head.

He settles into his seat- _his seat!-_ and whips around to face Jeonghan. “That’s one of Hansol’s friends!”

“Uh, yeah. I know, I see them together at the skatepark a lot,” Jeonghan replies with a shrug, opening his notebook. “What did you learn last class, I wasn’t here-”

“So why was Seungcheol here?” Seungkwan demands. This was all so strange- first, Chwe Hansol had suddenly barged into his theatre and now, Hansol’s friends were worming their way in too. Sure, Seungkwan’s sample size was a mere _one,_ but- but these patterns had to stem from somewhere, didn’t they? 

He had spent much of yesterday dwelling on what had happened two nights ago, at the movie screening. Seungkwan still can’t believe that the skater had helped him out like that. Sure, he was just stating what he believed to have happened but he’s shocked that Hansol didn’t find a way to pile the blame on him; wouldn’t he rather have done that instead of defending Seungkwan?

So what kind of game was Hansol playing with him? They had a conversation after the movie that Seungkwan actually...enjoyed? Did he fall into a parallel universe, where not only did he not get the lead in the play but he also shared a pleasant talk with his worst enemy? Perhaps Seungkwan would have to investigate this further. Luckily- _luckily?-_ he would be seeing quite a bit of Hansol in the next three months. He had eventually concluded that Hansol had just been trying to get under his skin again, that night.

“Cheol’s my friend,” Jeonghan says matter-of-factly, bringing Seungkwan’s attention back to their conversation. “Anything wrong with that?”

“I guess not,” Seungkwan grumbles, even though he’s already running through scenarios in his mind about Hansol’s diabolical plan to infiltrate his life. Perhaps his skater friends were each pawns in this game, and they were all out to get him! Seungkwan is only slightly aware of how paranoid he sounds but he just _knows_ Hansol has some kind of a problem with him.

“Good,” Jeonghan hums, flipping his notebook to a fresh page. “Because- well, he’s kind of important to me. So I’d want you and the rest of our friends to like him. You know what I mean, right?”

Jeonghan had always been an open book. And if Seungkwan’s being perfectly honest, he’s never given dating that much thought, at least not for himself. Sure, there had been people he thought were objectively attractive but he doesn’t even remember the last time he had genuine, sincere feelings for someone. 

During class, he catches Jeonghan doodling Seungcheol’s name with a heart inside a terribly drawn diagram of the brain, his older friend immediately covering it up with red ears once he sees Seungkwan looking. The antics continue at rehearsal, when Seungcheol shows up and Jeonghan’s attempt at nonchalance doesn’t go unnoticed when he’s introducing him to Jihoon.

Seungkwan also notices the way Seokmin plops down on Joshua’s lap backstage as they share Joshua’s earbuds to watch their niche interest videos together. He even notices the way Nayoung’s eyes follow Kyulkyung across the stage as his fellow freshman laughs with Seokmin and Jaehyun, the three of them making up the trio of Benvolio, Romeo, and Mercutio, respectively. Seungkwan doesn’t think anyone else has noticed yet; contrary to popular belief, he _does_ pay some attention towards the actions of people besides himself. He wants to tease the director but he also doesn’t want to get kicked out of the play.

All in all, Seungkwan’s not oblivious to the almost abrupt burst of romance surrounding his friends. But he doesn’t think he’ll be a part of it, especially anytime soon.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“Pay attention, Boo,” Nayoung nudges him from their seats in the front row. “This is the part where we really get to know who Tybalt is- or at least from the perspectives of Romeo’s friends.”

Seungkwan watches Jaehyun prance across the stage, throwing his arms in the air as Kyulkyung looks at him with worry.

_“Why, what is Tybalt?”_ she asks and Jaehyun’s jaw drops with feigned astonishment. Seungkwan stifles a giggle, though he’s still a little bitter that Jaehyun, who had originally auditioned for Tybalt, had ended up with, what Seungkwan believes to be, a bigger role.

_“More than Prince of Cats,”_ Jaehyun cries, _“Oh, he’s the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests his minim rests—one, two, and the third in your bosom. The very butcher of a silk button, a duelist, a duelist, a gentleman of the very first house of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal passado, the punto reverso, the hai!”_

“You know what he means, right Seungkwan?” Nayoung elbows him again, before answering her own question. “Tybalt is a master of the sword. The scariest dude in town. Seungkwan, you must _be_ the most frightening man they’ve ever encountered.”

“Okay, yes,” Seungkwan nods understandingly. “Like I was in _Frankenstein._ I can-”

“No!” Nayoung exclaims. “It’s a different kind of scary. You need to be _intimidating.”_

“I am intimidating!” Seungkwan gasps. Nayoung just looks at him a little sadly, before standing up from her seat and making her way to the stage to give Jaehyun and Kyulkyung suggestions to improve. Seungkwan turns to Seokmin, who’s sitting on his other side. The other actor vacuums up leftover Christmas cookies into his mouth and gives Seungkwan a muffled grunt, crumbs spewing everywhere. 

“I’m intimidating right?” Seungkwan protests and Seokmin looks around the auditorium like he’s searching for an exit.

“Um, is this a trick question?”

From the seat on Seokmin’s left, Jeonghan lets out a snort. “You don’t intimidate anybody, Boo. You try, but we’re all used to your ridiculous hijinks by now.”

_“Hijinks?”_ Seungkwan leans back, offended. “That’s absolutely preposterous, how could you even think that?”

“Oh, actually-” Seokmin cuts in, setting the tin of cookies on the floor. “I _think_ I know someone who’s intimidated by Boo.”

“See!” Seungkwan throws an arm around Seokmin’s shoulders smugly. “Wait, who is it?”

“Uh,” Seokmin looks around the theatre again. “Shua-hyung told me yesterday he’s under the impression that Hansol may be fearful of you.”

“Aha!” He knew it! Hansol was carefully laying out a trap, feigning the act of a wounded animal who was afraid of Seungkwan. Hansol was a ferocious schemer who thought he was one step ahead of Seungkwan when the truth was, Seungkwan was always _three_ steps ahead of Hansol.

And right now was no exception. “Romeo, my good friend-” Seungkwan shakes his head at Seokmin with a tut. “Hansol just _wants_ Joshua to think that. That- that _fiendish_ skaterboy wants _all of you_ to think that.”

_“Hmf?”_ Seokmin leans over to pick up another cookie, gulping down his snack with a puzzled look on his face. “Are we talking about the same Chwe Hansol? But he’s a really nice guy! Did you know we have the same birthday?”

“I didn’t-”

“Yeah, I think he’s pretty cool,” Jeonghan agrees. “Quiet little dude, everyone seems to like him. I have no idea what you’re going on about, honestly.”

“But you two have biased opinions!” Seungkwan reminds them defensively. “Both of your boyfriends- or, your soon-to-be boyfriends- are friends with him! Of course you guys think he’s just the best thing since sliced bread! You think he’s a whole grilled cheese, don’t you? Hansol’s good at getting into people’s heads, he’s really-”

_“Oh.”_ Jeonghan interrupts his tantrum, slowly breaking out into a grin. “I see what’s going on here. Seokmin, do you?”

“I think I might,” Seokmin starts to smirk at him too and _what are they talking about?_

Seungkwan narrows his eyes at them both. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jeonghan sing-songs and Seokmin laughs in his face. Before Seungkwan can say anything else, Seungcheol walks over again and the conversation shifts to Seokmin’s Christmas cookies instead.

  
  
  
  


Rehearsals end soon enough and Seungkwan clips his script back in his binder, about to shove his stuff back into his bag when a daunting finger pokes at his arm.

“Mister Boo!” Soonyoung shrieks into his ear, Chan trailing from behind him.

“Oh, hi-”

“Come to the catacombs with us!” Chan jumps in front of his mentor, shaking Seungkwan by the shoulders.

“The catacombs?”

Soonyoung laughs. “Yes, the catacombs! And we’re not talking about the underground ossuaries in Paris, France. We’re talking about the _basement_ of the building.”

“What basement?” Seungkwan frowns and Chan loops their arms together.

“Apparently, there’s this dark and secret basement right below the auditorium. Soonyoung-hyung says there’s a bunch of old props down there we can use.”

“Yeah, that’s where they threw all the props and set pieces that didn’t get demolished in previous years,” Soonyoung explains. “So, I’m rounding up people to help us bring them up here. You should come!”

Seungkwan supposes this might be fun. He nods his agreement and Soonyoung twirls around, landing with an enthusiastic jump before trying to spin around Jihoon, who just arrived from down the stage stairs. The stage manager backs away from him with a terrified expression and Soonyoung just shrugs, before beckoning for them all to follow him backstage.

A fuzzy old television sits in front of Minghao and Junhui, who shove each other on the couch as their rapid fingers hit buttons on gaming controllers. Seungkwan’s eyes land on Hansol twiddling his thumbs as he watches the game from the fold-out lawn chair beside them. He scoffs. Hansol was so obnoxious, with the way he just sat there _._ _Menacingly._

“Hi Seungkwan,” Hansol looks up from the television and gives him an awkward smile. “Will you be...joining us in the catacombs today?”

_Who talks like that?_ “Yes, I suppose I will be,” he responds with a tight smile. What could Hansol be up to now?

Soonyoung dances over to them before they can say anything else. “Save the chit-chat for later! We’ve got some props to hunt down.”

The walk to the catacombs is uneventful. Soonyoung and Junhui skip and trot as the former casually twirls around the keys and four flashlights. Seungkwan falls into a polite discussion about insects with Jihoon and Chan, purposely ignoring the conversation Minghao and Hansol are having from behind them.

“Here we are,” Soonyoung unlocks the door and throws it open carelessly, nearly hitting Jihoon in the face. Darkness falls around them abruptly as the seven men slowly trickle down the stairs into the basement, trying not to step on each other. Seungkwan looks for a lightswitch but he can’t see anything and he’s not comfortable feeling around the murky walls with his hands. 

“There’s a lot of ground to cover, so why don’t we split up?” Soonyoung’s cheerful voice rings out among the dim room as the crew settles onto the ground floor. “Minghao, you can show me where you guys put the _Frankenstein_ props before- there might be some good stuff in there! Jihoon and Junhui, can you two look for any useful costumes? You can take the path from that door-” Soonyoung turns on one of the flashlights and shines it on the wall, revealing a dull-looking door on their right side.

“And Chan, please take Seungkwan and Hansol with you and keep walking forward!”

_No, not again!_ Seungkwan grits his teeth. Had Hansol gotten Soonyoung in on his plan too? _But what could his plan be, exactly?_ Seungkwan wonders to himself. Maybe Hansol was going to scare him! In the pitch darkness, nonetheless- this had to be it! He opens his mouth, about to make up an excuse to switch groups but Soonyoung takes off, Minghao in tow as they turn to left and Jihoon and Junhui leave through the aforementioned door on the right.

“Alrighty,” Chan claps his hands together. “You guys ready?”

_Ready as I’ll ever be,_ Seungkwan shakes his head to himself as he and Hansol follow Chan onwards.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“So, Soonyoung said to me earlier that we’re supposed to be looking for some more realistic looking fake swords,” Chan instructs them as the three freshmen tiptoe through the basement. “We’re still using the foam ones but apparently, the director thinks they look really silly.”

“They do look silly,” Seungkwan agrees. “But it’s kinda funny to watch.”

Beside him, Hansol keeps bumping into him, their shoulders knocking together and Seungkwan glowers at him, perfectly aware that Hansol couldn’t see his face. But it was the thought that counted!

“Uh, Chan?” the skater speaks up, his voice shaking audibly while Seungkwan continues to fume at him silently. “Sh-should we turn on our phone flashlights? Soonyoung forgot to leave us one of the big flashlights.”

“That’s a good idea,” Chan responds, humming. “I left my phone upstairs in my bag, though. Do you guys have yours?”

“Mine’s dead,” Hansol mumbles apologetically while Seungkwan reaches into his own pockets and pulls out his cellphone. He turns on the flashlight, the beam shining a tiny ray of white light over their path.

“Uh, that works, I guess...” Chan looks at the light, unimpressed, “Maybe we should find Soonyoung and ask him for one of his flashlights. I can go look for him if you guys stay right here.”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to go off alone,” Seungkwan points out. He knows full well that Hansol would _want_ to get him alone so he could pull his scary little prank and embarrass Seungkwan right there in the deep, dusty basement. Maybe Chan was even in on it, too.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Chan claps both of them on their backs, making both Seungkwan and Hansol jump a little. “Just stay here, I’ll look for Soonyoung. I doubt the basement is actually that big; I’m sure I can find him easily.”

“Fine, but take the flashlight at least. You’ll need it more than we do if you’re gonna be moving around,” Seungkwan hands him his phone and he can vaguely make out Chan’s thumbs up gesture before his friend disappears around the corner.

_Great._ Seungkwan grumbles to himself, leaning on a wall he hopes isn’t sticky. _Now I’m stuck with_ him.

Silence ripples through the basement and Seungkwan holds his breath, waiting for the inevitable bucket of goo to release its contents over his head. Or perhaps Hansol was more of a fake spider-throwing type of prankster? Either way, it seemed like Seungkwan was trapped. But Hansol stays quiet and while Seungkwan waits for something, _anything_ to rattle or drop. 

But there’s nothing. Except-

The shoulder still brushing against his own trembles, shaking in that scruffy denim jacket and Seungkwan slowly turns his head.

“Are you okay?” he asks, the words leaving his mouth without a second thought. Seungkwan scolds himself silently while Hansol nearly jumps out of his skin.

“Um, yeah. I’m fine.”

“Well, you’re shaking. Are you like, afraid of the dark or something?”

No reply. Seungkwan releases the breath he was holding. 

“You are,” he mumbles when he hears a soft exhale in response. “It’s- it’s gonna be okay, Hansol. I promise.”

He catches the shuffling sound of sleeves rubbing against each other, buttons clinking together before his remaining companion on this dreaded journey lets out another sigh. “I’m- yeah, I just...don’t like it when it’s like, you know. Pitch-black.”

“I mean, you’ll have to be working in near pitch-black conditions during performances,” Seungkwan reminds him quietly. “Honestly, it’s one of my least favourite parts of performing too. Why do you think I’m so obsessed with the spotlight?”

Hansol lets out a tiny chuckle at his joke and an impulsive smile forms at Seungkwan’s mouth. _It’s okay, it’s too dark for Hansol to have even caught that._

He lets his hand fall, his knuckles brushing against Hansol’s own. His nemesis continues to shake and without thinking, Seungkwan grabs his hand, intertwining their fingers.

_Oh. That’s embarrassing._

“I’m sorry,” he mutters, retracting his hand so quickly that he almost slams his hand onto the metal buckle of his belt. A strange noise escapes Hansol’s lips. It’s something between a gasp and a choking sound.

“No, uh. It’s alright,” Hansol blurts out. “That was my fault, I’m sorry.”

“How could it be your fault?” Seungkwan scoffs. “I was, I don’t know. Trying to help.”

_Was he?_ Seungkwan shakes his head, looking down at boots he can’t even see. Why would he want to help his greatest rival, who had tried so hard to break down his resolve just days ago when they had shared a pleasant conversation? He had just discovered Hansol’s weakness, or at least one of them, so shouldn’t Seungkwan be leaving him in the dark, literally?

“It did,” Hansol mumbles and Seungkwan looks up at him.

“What?”

“It- it helped,” Hansol says a little louder. “But it’s okay, you don’t have to-”

“No,” Seungkwan takes his hand again, holding onto it stubbornly. “I- I don’t mind. Helping you, that is,” he affirms and _what the hell is he saying?_

“Oh,” Hansol swallows hard. Hesitantly, he wraps their fingers together and Seungkwan looks the other way. 

“Where the fuck is Chan?” he groans. “Did he really get lost, after all? Ugh, I knew we shouldn’t have let him go off alone.”

“Maybe we should look for him,” Hansol suggests, ready to take a step towards the direction in which Chan disappeared but Seungkwan tugs him back by the hand. He pushes away the voice in his head that’s yelling a firm _what are you doing?_

“Uh, I don’t want us to get lost either. It’ll just confuse him on where we are by the time he makes it back to this spot.”

“Right,” Hansol agrees and the two of them stay there, hands still linked as Seungkwan wracks his brain trying to make sense of the situation.

Eventually, Chan finds his way back, huffing and puffing with Soonyoung, Minghao, and a few large boxes. Soonyoung apologizes for not giving them a flashlight earlier, but only after scolding all three of them for splitting up. He hands Hansol a flashlight and the other boy hastily releases Seungkwan’s hand. 

_Oh, okay._ Hiding the falter in his state, Seungkwan crosses his arms over his chest tightly, following Soonyoung back upstairs. He wonders if any of them had seen him holding Hansol’s hand.

(He doesn’t acknowledge the part of him that almost hoped they did.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hansol, freaking out rn:


	6. vi

“Ha!” Hansol watches from the wings as Seokmin draws his sword and points it exaggeratedly at Seungkwan. “Uh, you’re going down, Tybalt. I’ll make sure of it, after what you did to my bestie Mercutio!”

He points at a still Jaehyun, who’s playing dead on the stage. “And um, I don’t care that you’re my love’s cousin, you- you vile bully-”

_“Those aren’t your actual lines,”_ Nayoung practically wails from below the stage. “Seokmin, I think perhaps you could also work on being more intimidating.”

“Have you even met this guy?” Seungkwan turns to the director with a scoff, pointing at Seokmin with his own sword. “He screams and runs the other direction at sight of a spider.”

“Excuse you-” Seokmin swats at him. “What if my personal interpretation of Romeo includes him having arachnophobia too? It’s my headcanon!”

Shaking his head to himself, Hansol turns around and returns backstage, leaving the two actors to continue yelling at each other. After what had happened in the catacombs last week, he’s more confused than ever about how Seungkwan regards him. His crush had held his hand- _he had held Hansol’s hand!_ And he had claimed it was an attempt to comfort him in the darkness, which Hansol decides he’s completely fine with- even if he’s still hopeful that one day, Seungkwan might hold his hand simply because he _wants_ to.

It wasn’t like Hansol had truly expected anything to change after that day. It hadn’t, anyway- Seungkwan still rarely initiated any conversations with him and the only other thing Hansol can pick apart and analyze is the conversation they had after the movie screening. 

_Seungkwan isn’t one for consistency,_ he supposes. Backstage, Minghao is looking thoughtfully at the tower the crew had built so far for the balcony scene. Kyulkyung stands beside him with a similarly contemplative expression.

“It’s missing something,” Hansol hears her tell Minghao as he walks over to join them. A piece of the fake stone bordering falls to the ground with a sad _thud_ and Hansol lets out a laugh, clapping Minghao on the back.

“More like missing a lot of things. Looks like we’ve still got our work cut out for us.”

“It’ll be fine!” Minghao picks up the fake stone with a nervous chuckle. “I’ll make sure it’s perfect by the end of January.”

“Well, that’s tomorrow,” Kyulkyung points out. “I think you shouldn’t set unrealistic standards for yourself.”

Hansol nods along with her and Minghao shushes them both. He picks at the crumbly paint on the tower and Hansol thinks they’ll have to suggest to Soonyoung that they find a time to repaint it.

“Wait, why are you back here?” he suddenly realizes, turning to Kyulkyung. “They’re running through the Romeo versus Tybalt scene right now. Isn’t Benvolio part of-”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” the actresses' eyes flash and she rushes off to the front of the stage, Minghao tsking as he watches her go. Hansol knows that they’re good friends, the two sophomores having bonded initially over being international students. He’s never spoken too much with Kyulkyung himself, but from their limited interactions, she had always seemed like a kind and fun person.

“You know how she only joined the play so she could talk to her anthropology TA from our first year?”

“Which would be?...”

“Nayoung,” Minghao gives him a look, as if it were super obvious. “She likes her. I’m not one to gossip but I’m a bit miffed about it, you know?”

“Wait, why?” Hansol frowns and Minghao tries to nudge the stone that had fallen off back into its slot in the tower.

“She told me she wanted to audition so she could hang out with her best friend Minghao!” Minghao explains, grunting a little as he pushes the stone in. “But little did I know that wasn’t the main reason.”

He places a hand on Hansol’s shoulder. “But at least I’ve got you. I’m so glad you joined our crew without _ulterior motives,_ ” he seethes, scrunching up his nose and Hansol decides not to tell him that he’s being dramatic about this. All he can do is let out a half-hearted chortle as he shoves away the slightest bit of guilt that flares up in his chest.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Soonyoung returns backstage, having spent the last hour inputting new effects into the sound system from the control booth. It’s a little room with sliding windows situated at the back of the theatre, with communication headsets for the crew and far too many chip crumbs Hansol was instructed to clean up last week after they all came back from the catacombs.

“Ah, there’s my favourite rookie,” Soonyoung grins when he spots Hansol sitting boredly on the sofa alone. Minghao had left to pick up more supplies, insisting that he could handle the tower himself.

“I thought Chan was your favourite rookie,” Hansol remarks, following Soonyoung when he beckons for the skater to follow him back to the booth.

“Hm, that kid misplaced a bucket of the light filters earlier,” the tech head harrumphs. “Until he finds them, he’s last in line on my favourites list.”

“Fair enough,” Hansol agrees. Taking a tentative seat in front of the lightboard, he scans the arrays of buttons and switches all around them. It’s still a little intimidating; he’s only been inside the tech booth a few times and he’s already having nightmares about hitting the wrong buttons and turning on the wrong lights during the actual performances. Soonyoung is still in the middle of training him properly and Hansol has only learned the basics of each position so far.

“Okay!” Soonyoung claps his hands together. “So backstage during the shows, Hao and Jun will be roping some of the cast to help them rotate the set pieces between scenes. And up here, Jihoon will be giving us stage cues and I’m thinking we should have one guy on lights, another on mics, and one more on soundboard,” Soonyoung points to each of the equipment as he announces their corresponding positions. “Like I said before, all of you will learn the cues in case we need to alternate roles. But for primary positions, I want you to take mics, while Chan does sound and I handle lights. But-” he points to a wide, black cylindrical object on their left side. “-I also want you to do follow spot for the scenes that need it. When that happens, I’ll do mics and lightboard at the same time.”

“Um....” Hansol looks at him with uncertainty. “That sounds like a lot of work. For me, I mean. Are you sure you trust me to handle all of that? I’m still new here.”

“Yep, you can do it!” Soonyoung exclaims, patting Hansol’s shoulder. “You’ve got a lot of potential, you know. You keep Minghao on his toes when he’s painting and Jun wants you to come with him on the costume tour.”

“Costume tour?”

“Jihoon called some other schools and he scheduled times for you guys to go to each of them and pick out which costumes we want.”

That sounded like fun. “Sure thing,” Hansol nods and Soonyoung pumps his fist once.

“Great! Now, let’s run through some of the most common light cues.”

When they’re finished reviewing, Soonyoung is the one who pops open a huge bag of chips and Hansol debates on whether he has authority to request that he help him clean up the crumbs this time. A sudden tap on his shoulder interrupts his train of thought and he whips around.

“Oh, hey hyung,” Hansol greets Seungcheol with one of their elaborate handshakes and Soonyoung gives him a high-five. Hansol doesn’t even remember if he was there when they were introduced. All he knows is that Seungcheol finally made a move on Jeonghan not too long ago and now he sometimes shows up to rehearsals. That’s cool with him- he’s happy to see his friends anytime. He does admit that it’s a little odd having most of them around at once, but everything seemed to be going well so far.

“Are those sour cream and onion?” Seungcheol points at their snack and Soonyoung nods enthusiastically, handing him the bag with a full mouth and puffed-out cheeks. “Thanks,” Seungcheol smiles and digs his hand inside. “They want you downstairs if you’re not doing anything right now, by the way.”

“Me or him?” Hansol gestures between himself and Soonyoung. 

Seungcheol nudges him. “You. Rehearsal ended but some of the actors are still practicing,” his older friend tells him with a shrug. “I think they want you to fill in for some lines.”

“Me? Okay,” Hansol stands up, grabbing a final fistful of chips. Soonyoung waves them off, sweeping the crumbs off the table messily.

“See, Hansol? Everyone wants you around,” he says and Hansol smiles back. It was a nice feeling.

He follows Seungcheol back downstairs, the two of them jogging and trudging and Hansol is completely unprepared for the words that leave the other’s mouth next. 

“Oh, you know- Jeonghan told me Seungkwan asked about you the other day.”

“He did?” Hansol shrieks and trips on his own feet, nearly falling down the stairs. “What did he say?” he grabs a hold of the railing as well as Seungcheol’s collar in what he knows is a fit of desperation. But he doesn’t care- he _has_ to know what Seungkwan said about him.

“Woah, calm down there,” Seungcheol steadies him by his arms, making sure Hansol regains his balance before backing down the steps with his hands up. “Apparently, he just saw me in their psych class and demanded to know if I was your friend.”

“What?” Hansol rakes a hand through his hair anxiously. “What does that mean? Did he say anything else? Hyung, what do _you_ think it means? Did he uh, threaten you or say some nice things to you. Since we’re friends and all. Hahahaha,” he chuckles, trying to reel back into his usual demeanor of attempted nonchalance. 

Seungcheol ponders his question briefly. “That’s all I heard. And I’m not sure what it means, sorry,” he concludes, shrugging with that same kind smile and Hansol groans internally. So much for figuring out Boo Seungkwan.

“But what do you _want_ it to mean?” the other skater wiggles his eyebrows at him, his grin widening. Hansol hastily points to the auditorium door.

“Oh, look! We’re here.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“Romeo, Romeo- wherefore art thou, Romeo?” Seokmin cries out dramatically, falling down on one knee in front of Joshua as Hansol walks up to stand beside Jihoon from below the stage.

“I’m pretty sure that’s my line, sunshine,” Joshua teases, brushing Seokmin’s fringe away from his forehead as the other other man clutches softly at his hand. He looks around the empty stage in confusion. “Aren’t I supposed to be on the balcony? Where _is_ the balcony?”

From the curtains, Minghao calls out to them, “It’s coming soon, I promise!”

Nayoung jots down her last notes. “It’s okay, Minghao. Of course we’d prefer it be finished as soon as possible but please be kind to your own schedule.”

She swings her tiny purse over her shoulder and exits the auditorium, Jihoon finally notices Hansol beside him. “Ah, perfect. We saw you go upstairs but if you’re not busy, can you read for Seokmin’s lines in his fight with Tybalt?”

He hands Hansol a few sheets of paper and one of the swords they had found in the catacombs. “Seungkwan still wants to practice that scene but Seokmin needs to leave soon. And so do I.”

Practice? Practice a scene with Seungkwan alone? Equal amounts of excitement and dread rush through Hansol’s mind and all he can do is grimace at Jihoon. The stage manager isn’t as intimidating as he had been when Hansol first met him but it’s not like he can say no to his request. Seungkwan doesn’t even look up at them, still flipping through his script and Hansol’s heart aches in his chest because _why won’t Seungkwan notice him?_

“Uh, sure-”

“Great, now from the top!” Jihoon calls, gathering up his belongings after Hansol carefully takes the script and sword from him. “Act Three Scene One. But when Tybalt returns after Mercutio dies,” 

He waves goodbye at them both and Seokmin and Joshua dash away too, giggling with each other but Hansol is still distracted by trying not to trip for the second time today as he walks up the steps beside the stage. Seungkwan finally makes eye contact with him and the expression on his face is as unreadable as it’s always been to Hansol these days.

“Uh,” Hansol quickly flips through the script, trying to find the correct lines. 

_“Alive in triumph—and Mercutio slain!_

_Away to heaven, respective lenity,_

_And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now._

_Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again_

_That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul_

_Is but a little way above our heads,_

_Staying for thine to keep him company._

_Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.”_

A little huff escapes Seungkwan’s lips as he exhales. Hansol wishes he was only acting.

_“Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,”_ Seungkwan boldly points his sword at him. _“Shalt with him hence.”_

_“This shall determine that,”_ Hansol squeaks out and raises his sword, the weapon clanging noisily against Seungkwan’s own. It’s not sharp enough to physically harm anybody but it’s a far cry from the foam props the cast had been practicing with. Hansol brings the script up to his face, squinting at the words on the paper. “Do we fight now?”

“We’re supposed to adlib for this part,” Seungkwan replies with a shrug and Hansol nods back slowly.

“So just like, say whatever?”

“That’s what an adlib is, yes,” Seungkwan blows off a piece of dust on his elbow. “You know what- I can start.”

He lowers his sword and steps to his left, putting one foot in front of the other with that same narrowed gaze as Hansol imitates his dance and they slowly begin circling each other on the stage.

“I know what you’re up to, Romeo.”

Weren’t they not supposed to use modern language? Hansol recalls Nayoung frustratedly reminding Seokmin and Jaehyun to stop arguing on stage over which of their characters was “more of a Chad”.

“Did you really think your little plan would work?” Seungkwan continues to bite as they face off, still circling. “We’ve always been rivals, haven’t we? Maybe we haven’t spoken much until recently but you’ve always had something against me.”

Hansol frowns. “I guess?” he frowns, trying to catch up with Seungkwan’s movements. “Uh, just because you’re my Juliet’s dear cousin doesn’t mean you can just waltz in and try to ruin our union of um, of love. Yeah.”

“Oh, you’d know a whole lot about waltzing in, now wouldn’t you!” Seungkwan exclaims, bringing his sword up again and Hansol frantically pantomimes him. Their swords stick together menacingly again.

“I’m sorry?” Hansol gives up. Maybe he needs to reread the play or something.

“Ugh!” Seungkwan points the sword at the top of Hansol’s chest, the tip of the blade curling back like a fencing weapon. “Look, I know you don’t like me for some reason and you just want to get under my skin. Well, I hate to say it but congratulations- you’ve done it.”

“What?” Hansol ducks instinctively as Seungkwan’s sword sweeps over his head in a grand slicing motion. “You know why, Tybalt. You just killed my friend, of course I’m not gonna like you much.”

He attempts to copy Seungkwan’s action but the actor just blocks his weapon and grabs the blade furiously, whipping it out of Hansol’s shaky hands and tossing it away. The sword falls on the wooden floor with a dull clink, sliding to the back of the stage. Hansol watches it slow to a stop, and he finally understands.

“This isn’t about the play, is it?” 

He holds up his hands defensively as Seungkwan points the sword at his chest again, still fuming.

“Depends,” he practically snarls. “It is, if you’re counting the fact that you snaked your way into _my_ play and _my_ theatre just to bother me. I know you don’t like me and I just don’t understand why!”

_What the hell?_ Seungkwan’s sudden shout echoes through the theatre and Hansol falls over on his heels in shock. Still trembling, he scoots backwards with his hands propped up as Seungkwan glowers down at him, still pointing with that stupid sword. And- _he thinks I don’t like him?_ _That can’t be further from the truth, where did he even get that idea from?_

“What are you talking about?” Hansol musters up the courage to shout back. “I don’t- I don’t dislike you! I-” _I like you a lot. Like,_ a lot _alot,_ he almost lets slip. Catching himself, he slowly rises from the floor, dusting off his jeans.

And all at once, it comes rushing out. Or at least- most of it. “You’re the one who doesn’t like me!” Hansol blurts out. “And I wish you’d at least tell me why. I just- I thought we were getting along and everything. You know, after movie night and that time in the catacombs.”

“What?” Seungkwan exclaims, finally pulling the sword away and dropping it on the stage. “I never had anything against you, Hansol. Well, I mean- I only disliked you ‘cause I thought you hated me for some reason. That’s why you never spoke to me back in our first semester, right? During our philosophy class?”

“No!” Hansol cries out and _fuckfuckfuck_. So this really was his own fault after all. “I- I wasn’t- I was just...shy.”

“Shy?” Seungkwan’s jaw drops to the floor. “So, you weren’t actively scheming to prank me?”

“What? No, what prank?”

“Just- I guess it all started when you showed up backstage that one day when we got noodles with Soonyoung and Chan and I was like, my worst nemesis is here. What could he be planning?”

“Worst nemesis?” _Damn, this is worse than I thought._ “That’s not- Seungkwan, I promise I haven’t been like, _scheming_ to ruin your theatre career or whatever. I never spoke to you much in our philosophy lecture because well-” Hansol pauses, choosing his words carefully. “You seemed really cool and I wanted to um, be friends with you. But uh, I’m honestly pretty bad with social situations and you were- _are_ really confident and everything. So, I was afraid to approach you.”

“...Oh,” Seungkwan mumbles under his breath, casting his gaze downwards as he shuffles his feet. Silence ripples through the auditorium and Hansol swears he can hear the click of Soonyoung shutting a door all the way up in the control room.

“So...you were intimidated by me?” Seungkwan finally continues, looking back into Hansol’s eyes after what feels like an eternity. “Are you still intimidated by me?”

“I mean- maybe,” Hansol grimaces. “I guess- I guess that would depend on if you still- you know. Have anything against me.”

“Right,” Seungkwan swallows hard. “I- wow, I guess I had it all wrong…”

He shakes his head at the ground and Hansol almost places a comforting hand on his shoulder. No, they still weren’t there yet, despite their moment in the catacombs from the other day.

“I’m sorry, Hansol. I really am,” Seungkwan sighs. He takes a seat on the stage floor, fidgeting with his hands and Hansol slowly sits down in front of him. “I know I can be a bit...much,” Seungkwan admits. “But I think the way I treated you was out of line. I got annoyed when I thought that you didn’t want to be my friend and well, I was too self-absorbed to recognize that you had your own stuff going on.”

“It’s- it’s okay,” Hansol tells him. “I’m just glad we cleared up this um, miscommunication and all.”

“Still,” Seungkwan shakes his head again. “That doesn’t make it okay and I wasn’t fair to you at all. My um, my paranoia is my own worst enemy, I guess. It’s like- I thought that if you never spoke to me, the problem had to be with you. I guess I’ve been too prideful to admit that the issue could just be me and all my bullshit.”

He lets out a small smile. “I really did have fun chatting with you that time at the movie screening. And um, I didn’t _totally_ hate helping you out in the basement, either.”

“Oh, yeah,” Hansol hopes Seungkwan doesn’t see the blush creeping up his neck when he’s reminded of the two of them holding hands. “Thank you again for that, by the way. You really helped calm me down.”

He decides to skim over the fact that Seungkwan taking his hand still made him panic in the catacombs, but in a completely different way than what resulted from him being afraid of the dark. 

Seungkwan lets out a low chuckle. “I think a part of me didn’t want to admit that I had fun with my so-called worst enemy, you know? Again, I let my pride get the best of me and I know that’s something I should work on.”

“Hey, we all have things to work on,” Hansol can’t help it- he reaches out to pat Seungkwan’s arm. The warmest glow settles in his stomach when Seungkwan places his hand over Hansol’s and _fuckfuckfuck-_

“Maybe so,” Seungkwan hums. He pulls his hand away but Hansol is still riding on the high of his one small action. “Do you...still want to be friends?” the actor mumbles and Hansol realizes it’s the first time he’s seen him look so unsure. “I- I totally get it if you don’t-”

“No!” Hansol exclaims. “I mean- I do still want to be friends.”

_But I wish we could be more than friends._ He doesn’t say it out loud. He’s not going to be greedy about this, he decides. He never even imagined he’d get this far.

“Ah, okay,” Seungkwan smiles. He holds out his hand and Hansol wonders if he’s being too impulsive. Maybe he’s too smitten and he shouldn’t be so forgiving so quickly.

But the look in Seungkwan’s eyes is genuine, full of sincerity and promise that he meant his word. Even if Hansol had never gotten even _this_ close to him, there was never any doubt that Boo Seungkwan was honest to a fault.

“Friends?” Seungkwan asks him, his tone still uncertain and Hansol grabs his hand so quickly he almost forgets to be nervous.

“Friends.”


	7. vii

Jihoon squints curiously as he holds up his French cruller, his pinky pointed upwards like they were at a tea party. Seungkwan munches happily on a Boston cream pie donut, chocolate dripping down his chin as he swivels and swerves on the bar stool adjacent to Jihoon’s.

“Interesting,” Jihoon remarks, still observing his dessert. “I’ve never had a twisted donut before.”

He takes a careful bite and Seungkwan watches his expression light up. “Good?” he asks and Jihoon nods calmly.

“Really good. You picked a great place to study today, Boo.”

The donut shop is relatively new, having replaced an independent fast food joint that had only lasted one autumn on their university campus. Its bright pink neon decor and chic, clean furniture had drawn Seungkwan to the shop the second he walked past it when he took a detour from his way to school a few days ago. Jihoon had asked him to study together on the weekend and the younger had immediately insisted that they pretend to do their homework in _Holey Moley-_ an odd but understandable name for a donut shop.

“And how is the food tasting?” The server who assisted them siddles up to their spot at the bar, his white teeth shiny as he flashes them a grin.

“Really good,” Seungkwan and Jihoon affirm in unison and the guy gives them a gleeful thumbs-up. He’s incredibly tall and tanned and looks vaguely familiar but Seungkwan can’t put his finger on where he’s seen him before.

Suddenly, a cheerful chime rings out from the entrance and Seungkwan turns his head. Two students with skateboards push open the door. The server’s loud voice calls out to them, a sonic boom rippling over Seungkwan’s head.

“Took you long enough!” he laughs, and the skaters stroll over to the bar. They take off their helmets as they pick out their seats and- _oh!_ It’s Hansol! Seungkwan should have recognized him sooner, since he’s gotten quite used to seeing the other freshman at rehearsals for the play.

He still feels awful for the way he treated him, even though Hansol has firmly reminded him more than once that he’s over it and that he knows it was just a misunderstanding. Nevertheless, Seungkwan hopes that the genuine effort he’s been putting in at turning over a clean slate- not just regarding their relationship but also regarding some parts of his personality- is making Hansol feel more at ease around him. The actor approaches Hansol at rehearsal when he’s not needed on stage, joking with him and starting up conversations. Their talks are still limited to somewhat impersonal and casual topics but Seungkwan is aware that they shouldn’t force their new friendship; it would surely develop organically over time.

“Mingyu,” Hansol’s friend calls out to the server and it’s only then when Seungkwan realizes the man behind the counter is the last of the three other skaters he’s seen Hansol hanging out with.

Mingyu darts back into the kitchen, returning with two plates of strawberry cream donuts. He places the dishes in front of his friends’ seats and Hansol goes up to the cash register to pay.

Right beside where Seungkwan is sitting. “Oh, um- hi Seungkwan!” Hansol stutters, his board nearly slipping out of his fingers. The corners of Seungkwan’s mouth drop a little. Sometimes, Hansol still seemed nervous around him and he hates that it’s his own fault. 

“Hey!” he grins back as widely as possible without splitting his jaw. He just wants Hansol to know that he’s really trying to change. “Fancy seeing you here. Are you here to get a donut?”

He wants to slap himself as soon as the words leave his mouth because _of course Hansol was at the donut shop to get a fucking donut!_

But Hansol’s shy expression remains stuck on his face, like the edge of a roll of tape he could never quite pry off. “I am, yeah,” he replies quietly. “Mingyu here is graciously using his staff discount on us.”

He gestures to his friend behind the cashier and Mingyu nods at him. Hansol pays for his donut, before greeting Jihoon too and subsequently introducing them to Wonwoo, the friend who had entered the shop with him. The five of them chat for a while, Mingyu still waiting for more customers to tend to. He and Wonwoo launch into a story about Hansol falling on his face at a different skatepark off of campus and Seungkwan and Jihoon let out appropriate sympathies while chuckling at the unfortunate tale. Hansol groans and flips the hood of his hoodie on, pulling at the drawstrings to cover his face.

“Aw, it’s okay,” Seungkwan nudges him gently while the others begin talking about something else. “At least you didn’t get seriously hurt.”

Eventually, the tiny smile returns to Hansol’s face, and Seungkwan chooses not to acknowledge the way his own grin stretches until his mouth hurts. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“I have a question,” Hansol blurts out one Friday afternoon while Seungkwan is in the middle of packing up and leaving for his dorm.

“Yeah, of course. Shoot,” he gestures for the skater to continue. Hansol takes a deep breath. 

He looks a little faint. “Will you, um…”

“Yes?...” Seungkwan raises an eyebrow at him. Hansol looks at the floor, rocking back on the balls of his heels with his thumbs curled through the belt loops of his jeans.

“Do you-” he starts again. “Do you want to come with me and the rest of stage crew to the dollar store? We’re leaving right now to look for more supplies.”

“Okay, sure,” Seungkwan agrees. “Is that all?” he tacks on, giving Hansol a worried look and his new friend looks away so quickly Seungkwan wonders if he said something wrong again.

“Yes- I mean,” Hansol rakes a hand through his hair anxiously. “Yes. Yeah,” he repeats and Seungkwan decides not to press the issue further. “That’s all,” Hansol nods hastily and turns on his heel, walking out the backstage door.

_Weird._ He doesn’t like that Hansol’s still seemingly walking on eggshells around him, even if their interactions have grown much friendlier than before. Seungkwan supposes he’ll just keep maintaining a pleasant demeanor with sincere intentions and hopefully, the passage of time would take care of the rest.

“You’ve been acting strange lately,” Chan comments skeptically as he falls in line beside Seungkwan on the way to the dollar store. “Strangely nice.”

Ahead of them, Minghao, Soonyoung, Junhui, and Hansol converse in groggy mumbles, trudging their feet as they walk. Seungkwan frowns, turning to Chan in confusion.

“What do you mean? I’m always nice!”

“Well...” Chan starts slowly. “I think you have the capacity to be nice but you often get a little too heated over small things.”

“I do not!” Seungkwan fumes, heated.

Chan gives him a pointed look and Seungkwan throws up his hands in defeat. “Okay, maybe I have a rather _loud_ personality. That doesn’t mean I’m not nice.”

“I suppose,” Chan shrugs. “All I’m saying is- lately, you seem _nicer._ More laid back too, even.”

The gang reaches the dollar store, a wide green building sitting smack dab in the middle of a parking lot. Soonyoung zooms to the shopping carts, pulling one out and pushing it ahead of him with excitement as he rushes into the store.

“Do we really need that?” Junhui calls after him but it’s too late. Chan claps Seungkwan on the back and they all follow Soonyoung inside.

Minghao quickly drags Hansol away to the art supply aisle. Seungkwan doesn’t pay them too much attention as he follows Junhui and Chan into a candy aisle. An older IU song blares out weakly over the store speakers and Seungkwan hums to himself, laughing with his friends as the three of them pick up fistfuls of cheap lollipops and gummies, chasing Soonyoung all over the store to toss their candies into his shopping cart.

“I’m not paying for that,” Soonyoung looks down at the growing mountain of sweets. Underneath the pile lies Soonyoung’s intended purchases of new power drill batteries and a few markers. Seungkwan recognizes that Soonyoung could have made this trip all on his own but he’s glad he didn’t. He’s glad Hansol asked him to come along- these kinds of ridiculously mundane field trips were always much more fun with friends.

He leans against the shelves of the candy aisle- the group had already made five rotations around the store, only to end back up at their starting point. Soonyoung finally gives in, happily cramming packages of sticky toffee into the cart while the playlist switches to a Wondergirls song. Needless to say, Seungkwan is at peace this afternoon, inside this stale, slightly chilly dollar store. 

While Junhui and Chan debate the shelf life of the peppermints in the aisle, a familiar snort echoes through the store. Seungkwan whips around, scanning his surroundings in search of the source. Noticing a narrow gap between the shelves behind him, he leans in and-

Ah. It was just Hansol. And Minghao. Hansol and Minghao. 

Right, there was nobody else even in the store. Seungkwan watches them hold up bright, neon sunglasses to each other’s faces, chortling through their choices for the funniest pieces of eyewear.

Hansol cups his hands up to Minghao’s ear, whispering as if they weren’t already alone in the middle of the party supply aisle. Seungkwan squints at them, trying to make out what they were saying _(so he’s still nosy, sue him)._

But the Wondergirls are too loud. Minghao playfully wacks Hansol’s arm in response and the two of them double over in a fit of laughter. Seungkwan glances back at Soonyoung crinkling the packages and Junhui and Chan’s growing volume as their mint argument escalates. 

Hansol and Minghao don’t even hear them. “They seem close,” Seungkwan mutters to himself under his breath. 

“They are,” Chan agrees, making Seungkwan jump. He had not expected anyone to catch that. “Minghao told me that Hansol joined the play just to hang out with him.”

“Oh,” Seungkwan frowns. He had always known they were friends, but only watching them now- albeit a little creepily through the shelves of a dollar store aisle- does he process the information like it’s something significant. 

He’s not sure he wants it to be. Seungkwan recalls Hansol telling him exactly what Chan had said just now, when the two of them had shared their first pleasant conversation after the movie screening. He nudges Junhui, who finally pulls away from the peppermints.

“You and Minghao are bros, or whatever, right?” he inquires. Junhui nods and Seungkwan glances back through the shelves. “Do you know if he and Hansol are together a lot? Like not _together_ together,” he corrects himself hastily. 

From his periphery, Chan shoots him a suspicious look but Seungkwan promptly ignores him. “But uh, do they spend a lot of time together backstage?”

“Yeah!” Junhui nods far too enthusiastically for Seungkwan’s liking. “They’re together all the time. Hao goes on to me about how Hansol’s such a great guy and how he’s so glad that working on the play is starting to bring him out of his shell.”

“Ah,” Seungkwan repeats. And he’s happy for Hansol- of course, he is! Happy that Hansol is coming out of his shell and that he had such a supportive _friend_ like Minghao to coerce him into joining their community. _Friends_ were such a great thing to have, and Seungkwan would know- he has so many! 

“They’re like besties, you know? The kind that have tons in common!” Soonyoung drones nonchalantly. Seungkwan bites down on the inside of his cheek.

“Ah, yes,” Chan nods in equal understanding. “The type of friends who would drop everything for each other!”

“Right, but-”

“And Hansol’s always bringing Minghao food back when he keeps working too late,” Junhui continues. “I keep saying to Hao too, that he should set some kinder deadlines for himself but he-”

_“Yes,_ I see!” Seungkwan cuts in, gritting his teeth. “They’re super awesome best friends who are very supportive of each other’s hobbies and like to spend time together!” 

Really, there was no need for such a long discussion about this. “Anyway-”

“They would make a great couple!” Chan exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. He almost knocks over a row of sour candy jars. 

_What?_ Seungkwan inhales sharply, turning to his friend slowly. “I mean-”

“I can see it,” Soonyoung cackles. “I didn’t want to be the one to say it but you’re right!”

_Again- what?_ “Well, you guys just said they’re only best friends,” Seungkwan points out quickly. “I’m sure they would have told us if they were ever anything like-”

“But Hansol seems quite shy, and Minghao is pretty private about this kind of thing too,” Junhui shrugs. Seungkwan just stares at them all, incredulous as he curses them internally for those- those _absolutely absurd sentiments!_ How could they say such ridiculous things- and while the Wondergirls were still playing, nonetheless? The disrespect, the _dishonour_ was truly something else.

“But that doesn’t mean they’re a couple!” he blurts out, already fuming again. Chan looks like he wants to retract his earlier statement of Seungkwan seeming nicer these days and Junhui places a careful hand on the actor’s shoulder.

“Uh, we know. No one said they were a couple,” he reminds Seungkwan. “Chan just pointed out their compatibility.”

“Yeah,” Chan raises an eyebrow. “Dude, chill.”

Before Seungkwan can say anything else, Soonyoung interrupts them, checking the time on his phone. “Oh, we should get back. I think this is all we need, right?”

Chan and Junhui agree and Soonyoung pushes the shopping cart, now spilling its contents over the rim, into the checkout area. Seungkwan trails after them, shaking his head to himself.

Did they really think Hansol and Minghao could be a good match? Sure, they were already good friends and Hansol was obviously very comfortable with him- he didn’t fidget or fret with Minghao. He could laugh with Minghao. Joke with Minghao. Brush his teeth with Minghao. Wake up next to Minghao and shower with Minghao too, if his friends were particularly enamoured with the idea!

Not that Seungkwan even really cares, of course. Hansol can go ahead and do whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter to him.

**Author's Note:**

> had this idea stuck in my head and now it's too late and i wrote it
> 
> comments appreciated<3


End file.
